Still sport of the King: Windsor interest keeps Royal Ascot alive and kicking

The Guardian

a day ago

Ascot will mark the 200th anniversary of the first Royal procession at its showpiece race meeting next week. The intermittent noise of jets on the final approach to Heathrow will be one of the few deviations from the sights and sounds when George IV first trundled his way up the course in 1825. The king and queen will ride in the first of the horse-drawn carriages, their liveried attendants will be upright in the saddle and, as they pass the Royal enclosure, the gentlemen's top hats will be doffed in the familiar mark of respect.
There is little else, in sport or the wider world beyond, that remains just as it was in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Demand for the Royal Ascot experience also remains strong. Following a post-Covid surge, attendances are in decline at both the Derby and Cheltenham's festival meeting in March. At Royal Ascot 2024, though, the year-on-year crowd numbers were up.
The meeting's most significant racegoer, meanwhile, has been present at (almost) every opportunity since his accession to the throne in 2022. The King attended all five days in 2023, when Desert Hero, a horse bred by his mother, carried the royal colours to victory in the King George V Handicap, and four days in 2024, missing only the Wednesday card when the Prince of Wales was there to present the prize for the feature race – the Prince of Wales's Stakes.
So the more pessimistic predictions of a steady decline, and perhaps even the end, for the crown's association with Ascot – and, by extension, the sport of kings as a whole – after the death of Elizabeth II have proved to be unfounded. Charles III is the ninth reigning monarch to ride in the Royal procession, and the 10th to sit on the throne since the meeting was effectively established with the first running of the Gold Cup in 1807.
'People tend to forget that there was a Royal Ascot before Queen Elizabeth II,' Nick Smith, the track's director of racing and public affairs, said on Friday, 'and the level of interest from monarchs will vary. It's well known that Queen Victoria didn't go to Royal Ascot for most of the latter part of her life, when she was in mourning for her husband.
'All monarchs past and present would come to Royal Ascot with varying degrees of focus on various elements of what they're going to see. With Queen Elizabeth II it was primarily about the horses, but if anything, it's a wider set of interests for the current King and Queen. For instance, there's an exhibition this year around the Queen's Reading Room, which is a charity very close to the Queen's heart.'
While the royal presence is a key ingredient of the meeting, it is not, in other words, a one-way street. Some monarchs focus almost entirely on the racing, others appreciate the social, cultural and economic benefits attached, including inward investment by the owners whose arrival in Berkshire each year creates a version of Davos for sovereign wealth.
'Royal Ascot is one of Britain's most powerful soft power assets,' Smith says. 'It is a major promotion of the British summertime overseas, and a major promotion of British sport overseas. And if you're getting presented with a trophy by the King and Queen, you can't replicate that experience and that means an awful lot to an awful lot of people.
'At the heart of it all, it's the traditions that make it special. The procession is broadly unchanged in 200 years, and it's the same with the dress codes, not just in the Royal enclosure but throughout the entire site. People who come to Royal Ascot know what they want to see and they know what they're going to get.'
The King and Queen are expected to attend all five days of this year's meeting, they will have a sprinkling of runners through the week and there is a real buzz in particular around Willie Mullins's Reaching High, who is expected to line up for the Ascot Stakes at 5pm on Tuesday's opening day.
Reaching High became the first horse owned by a reigning British monarch to be stabled in Ireland when he was sent to Mullins's yard following Sir Michael Stoute's retirement. But he offers a link to recent history too, as he was one of the last horses bred by Elizabeth II, and a son of Estimate, the mare whose success in the 2013 Gold Cup was the most cherished of all the late Queen's Royal Ascot winners.
The three-year-old sprint handicap which is the feature race on York's annual Macmillan Charity card on Saturday is always one of the strongest races of its type all season, and the fact that just two favourites have won this century is worth bearing in mind with the many and varied betting opportunities of Royal Ascot so close at hand.
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This year's favourite is Charlie Hills's Double Rush, who was an obvious pick to head the early betting on the bare form of his two-from-two record this year. He has drawn stall 20 of 22, however, on a course where low numbers often enjoy a significant advantage, and makes no appeal at all at his latest odds of around 5-1.
Marchogion (3.35), the cosy winner of a similar event at Newmarket last month with several of today's rivals in behind, is a better option at around 7-1. He has had more racing this year that many in this field but his latest outing was only his third on turf and he has obvious scope for further progress off a 7lb higher mark.
York 1.50 Dashing Darcey is in the early stages of his career with Geoff Harker after a six-figure switch over the winter and has little to find on his latest form at Haydock to get his first win for his new stable on the board.
Sandown 2.05 Richard Hannon's Classic is without a win for nearly two years, but that success came over seven furlongs at this track off 89 and he is now back down to a career-low mark of 87. His hold-up style can make life tricky but Ryan Moore is an eye-catching booking to ride and he has travelled like a well-handicapped horse in both of his outings so far this season.
York 2.25 Adrian Keatley and Jody Townend took this valuable contest for female amateur riders with Kihavah two years ago and Maghlaak, the runner-up in the same race over track and trip at the Dante meeting that Kihavah used as a springboard to success, has a clear chance to follow suit.
Sandown 2.40 The lack of a run this season is a slight concern but Coto De Caza was all speed as a juvenile, the Simon & Ed Crisford stable remains in fine form and his winning form in last season's Group Three Cornwallis Stakes at Newmarket is the best on offer.
York 3.00 Absurde travelled as well as the winner, Illinois, in the Group Three Ormonde Stakes at Chester last time and Willie Mullins's versatile gelding will appreciate the slight drop in grade to Listed company here.
Chester 3.20 On the face of it, 14th of 14 last time out does little to advertise the chance of Charlie Johnston's Tattie Bogle, but he was racing for the second time in five days, has been given a month off since and has also drawn an ideal berth in two, given that he is the obvious front-runner in the field.