Tag: royal ascot

Which is the most valuable race run at Royal Ascot?

Royal Ascot 2020 is scheduled to take place between Tuesday, June 16 and Saturday, June 20. Obviously, the future of the Royal Meeting, horse racing and British sport, in general, depends on the implications of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis but, if racing is back up and running by mid-June, Royal Ascot offers no fewer than eight Group One races spread over the five days.

All eight Group One contests, naturally enough, constitute part of the British Champions’ Series, in one or other of the ‘Sprint’, ‘Mile’, ‘Middle Distance’, ‘Long Distance’ and ‘Fillies & Mares’ categories. The opening Queen Anne Stakes, which has held Group One status since 2003, is the most valuable event of the week in the ‘Mile’ category, worth £600,000 in total prize money. In the ‘Sprint’ category, the six-furlong Diamond Jubilee Stakes, which has held Group One status since 2002 and is the feature race on the fifth, and final, day, is also worth £600,000 in total prize money. The most valuable race run at Royal Ascot, though, is the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, the ‘Middle Distance’ highlight, run over a mile and a quarters and worth £750,000 in total prize money.

Will Royal Ascot go Ahead in 2020?

With due respect to other summer racing festivals, such as the Moet & Chandon July Festival at Newmarket and the Qatar Goodwood Festival, Royal Ascot is the undisputed ‘jewel in the crown’ of the summer racing programme in Britain. Indeed, the Royal Meeting is renowned as one of the greatest sporting and social events anywhere in the world.

In 2020, Royal Ascot is scheduled for Tuesday, June 16 until Saturday, June 20 but, at the time of writing, Britain has been under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic for two weeks. Current speculation is that, if Britain mirrors China – which, in early April, reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since January – the Government could be in a position to, at least, consider lifting restrictions by ‘early summer’. Of course, the ‘astronomical’ summer does not start until June 20 so, while the Ascot authority is considering ‘a range of options’ with regard to future race meetings, Royal Ascot 2020 is still in the balance.

“It may prove possible to run the Royal Ascot races behind closed doors, dependent on government and public health policy and the approval of the BHA [British Horseracing Authority] for us to re-start racing,” said Ascot Racecourse’s chief exec Guy Henderson.

Before Frankel, which was the highest-rated horse in the history of Timeform?

On June 19, 2012, Frankel recorded what the Racing Post reported as an ‘extremely impressive’ 11-length victory over Excelebration in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and, in so doing, became the highest-rated horse in the history of Timeform, which first published ratings in ‘Racehorses of 1948’. As confirmed in ‘Racehorses of 2012’, Frankel was awarded a rating of 147, 2lb superior to Sea-Bird, who was beaten just once in an eight-race career in 1964 and 1965 and awarded a rating of 145 after winning all five starts as a three-year-old. Sea-Bird raced just once in Britain, effortlessly beating Meadow Court and twenty other rivals by two lengths in the Derby without coming off the bridle.

Later in 1965, Sea-Bird was sent off 6/5 favourite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, despite facing the strongest field of middle-distance talent ever assembled, including the hitherto unbeaten Prix du Jockey Club, or French Derby, winner Reliance. Despite sweating profusely in the preliminaries, Sea-Bird was travelling well in fifth place approaching the home straight and, thereafter, came clear of his rivals along with the eventual runner-up, Reliance. Sea-Bird veered alarmingly across the track in the last half a furlong or so, but still won by an official margin of six lengths, with Australian-born jockey Pat Glennon patting him down the neck in the closing stages.

Which monarch founded Royal Ascot?

Ascot Racecourse was founded in 1711, by Queen Anne, who declared an area near Ascot, or ‘East Cote’, village ‘ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch’. The first race, Her Majesty’s Plate, was staged in August that year and, for a short time, Ascot Races was a highlight of the Court social calendar. However, Queen Anne died in August, 1714 and, thereafter, support for Ascot Racecourse dwindled, until its fortunes were revived by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, during the reign of his nephew, King George III, over five decades later. The first Royal Meeting, in a recognisable modern form – that is, a four-day meeting – was staged in 1768, with the first Royal Stand, which later became the Royal Enclosure, erected in 1790, and the first Royal Procession taking place in 1825, by which time King George IV was the ruling monarch.

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