Founded by Queen Anne over three centuries ago, Ascot Racecourse has enjoyed Royal patronage ever since and, nowadays, Royal Ascot is a highlight of the British social and sporting calendars. On each of the five days, at two o’clock sharp, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the Royal Procession drive up the Straight Mile in horse-drawn landeau carriages to spend the afternoon in the Royal Enclosure.
The horse racing action is some of the best to be seen anywhere in the world, with a total of eight Group One races on offer, with full supporting cards of lesser, but still highly significant, Pattern races, Listed races and ultra-competitive handicaps. Group One highlights of the week include the Queen Anne Stakes, King’s Stand Stakes and St. James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday, the Gold Cup – the traditional highlight of the whole week – on Thursday, the Commonwealth Cup and Coronation Stakes on Friday and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on Saturday.
Royal Ascot generates in excess of £150 million in betting turnover, but the two major betting heats of the week are two so-called ‘heritage’ handicaps, the Wokingham Stakes and the Royal Hunt Cup. The Wokingham Stakes, run over 6 furlongs on the fifth, and final, day of Royal Ascot – which replaced the traditional Heath meeting in 2002 – is invariably contested by a maximum field of thirty runners and has thrown up winners at 33/1 (twice) and 25/1 in the last ten renewals.
Earlier in the week, the Royal Hunt Cup is, like the Wokingham Stakes, open to three-year-olds and upwards and worth £175,000 in prize money, but is contested over the Straight Mile. Once again, a maximum, or near-maximum, field of thirty runners ensures that the stalls are spread right across the width of the course, making life difficult for punters. Indeed, the Royal Hunt Cup has thrown up its fair share of surprises in recent years, with winners at 33/1, 28/1, 25/1, 20/1 and 16/1 (twice) in the last ten renewals, with just one winning favourite in that period.