Royal Ascot is unlike any other event on the British sporting calendar. Five days of world-class flat racing in Berkshire each June, attended by the Royal Family, dressed to the nines, and steeped in traditions that stretch back more than three centuries.
With racing betting interest in the meeting building throughout the spring and into the early summer, the draw of Royal Ascot goes well beyond what happens on the track. Here is a look at some of the most iconic elements of an event that has no real equivalent anywhere in the world.
The Royal Procession
Each of the five race days begins the same way. A line of horse-drawn landau carriages departs Windsor Great Park and makes its way down the Straight Mile into the racecourse, carrying King Charles III, Queen Camilla, and senior members of the Royal Family. The crowd falls into a particular kind of respectful attention as the procession arrives, hats raised, shoulders back, a quiet ritual that has been repeated almost without interruption since King George IV introduced it in 1825.
Mike Tindall, who has taken part in the procession as part of the royal party, described the carriage ride as roughly 20 minutes from start to finish, passing schools whose children wave British flags along the route. The experience, he noted, is extraordinary, and somewhat sweaty given the requirement to wear full morning dress in the June heat. The procession is not raucous. It is ceremonial. And that distinction is exactly what makes it so distinctly Ascot.
The Greencoats
Few figures at Royal Ascot are more immediately recognisable than the Greencoats. Dressed in forest-green single-breasted coats adorned with 12 brass buttons stamped with the royal cipher, white breeches, black boots, and a bicorne hat or peaked cap, they are the ceremonial guardians of the royal enclosures and the living embodiment of the meeting’s institutional character.
Their origins trace back to the early eighteenth century and the founding of the racecourse by Queen Anne in 1711, when they were initially appointed as the monarch’s personal guards. It is rumoured that the original velvet uniforms were made from material left over from curtains at Windsor Castle. Whether true or not, the story fits perfectly. They flank the royal carriages as they arrive down the Straight Mile each day, line the pathways, and manage the crowds with a quiet, unobtrusive authority that has remained consistent for centuries.
The dress code
Royal Ascot’s dress code is as much a part of its identity as anything that happens on the track, and it is enforced with a seriousness that reflects the enclosure system the racecourse operates. In the Royal Enclosure, gentlemen must wear black or grey morning dress, a waistcoat, tie, black or grey top hat, and black shoes worn with socks. Ladies must wear formal daywear with a hat or substantial fascinator, no exposed midriffs or shoulders, and skirts or dresses of an appropriate length.
The Royal Enclosure also requires sponsorship from a current member who has attended for at least four years. There is no workaround. The point, as it has always been, is not convenience. The dress code emerged in the early nineteenth century under the influence of Beau Brummell, a friend of the Prince Regent, who decreed that men of elegance should wear waisted black coats and white cravats. Two centuries of evolution later, the silhouette remains remarkably consistent.
The Gold Cup
At the centre of everything is the racing itself, and the Gold Cup is the jewel in Royal Ascot’s crown. Run over two and a half miles on the Thursday of the meeting, traditionally known as Ladies’ Day, it is the supreme test of the staying division and one of the most prestigious flat races in the world.
Its history stretches back to 1807, and the roll of honour reads like a catalogue of the sport’s greatest stayers. Stradivarius won it three times under John Gosden. Yeats won it four consecutive times between 2006 and 2009 under Aidan O’Brien. Those using a free bet calculator to assess their options for this year’s renewal will find a market built around some of the finest staying horses in Europe, and a race that, as it has done for more than two centuries, will define the week.
