A Short History

ASCOT’S BEGINNINGS

Few sporting venues can match the rich heritage and history of Ascot Racecourse. Over the past 300 years, Ascot has established itself as a national institution; with Royal Ascot becoming the centrepiece of the British social calendar and the ultimate stage for the best racehorses in the world.

It was Queen Anne in 1711 who first saw the potential for a racecourse at Ascot (in those days called East Cote). Whilst out riding near Windsor Castle she came upon an area of open heath that looked, in her words, “ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch”. THE FIRST RACE MEETING

The first race meeting ever held at Ascot took place later that year, on Saturday 11th August. The inaugural event was Her Majesty’s Plate, worth 100 guineas and open to any horse, mare or gelding over six years of age. Each horse was required to carry a weight of 12 stone and the seven runners were all English hunters, rather different to the speedy thoroughbreds that race on the Flat today.

The nature of the contest also bore little resemblance to modern day racing at Ascot. That race consisted of three separate heats, each four miles long – about the length of today’s Grand National course. The winning horse would have required tremendous stamina, but sadly there is no record of who claimed that first plate.

Queen Anne’s gift to racing, founding the Royal Racecourse, is marked by the tradition of opening Royal Ascot with the Queen Anne Stakes.

THE FIRST RACECOURSE

The racecourse was laid out by William Lowen, assisted by a team including a carpenter, a painter, and a racing administrator. The first permanent building was erected around 1794 by a local Windsor builder. Holding 1,650 people, it was used for almost fifty years.

In 1813, Parliament passed an Act of Enclosure, which ensured that Ascot Heath would be kept and used as a racecourse for the public in the future. Racing at Ascot was now secure.

FRANKEL, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Sponsored By QIPCO) winner, 2011

ROYAL ASCOT

The precise origins of the Royal Meeting are unclear, as the event evolved from the first four-day meeting that took place in 1768. The meeting as it’s known today only really started to take shape with the introduction of the Gold Cup in 1807. Royal Ascot was the only race meeting held at Ascot until 1939.

The Gold Cup remains the feature race of the third day of Royal Ascot, when high fashion and exquisite millinery take centre stage alongside Flat racing’s most elite stayers. In 2009, Yeats, ridden by Johnny Murtagh and trained by Aidan O’Brien, won his fourth consecutive Gold Cup – a magnificent achievement, and one that Stradivarius just failed to emulate in 2021 and 2022 having won the race three times between 2018 and 2020.

MANAGING ASCOT

Although founded by a Queen and located on Crown Estate property, the administration of Ascot is handled on behalf of the Crown Estate by a representative appointed by the Monarch. Up until 1901, the racecourse was managed on the Sovereign’s behalf by the Master of the Royal Buckhounds. In 1901, Lord Churchill was appointed as His Majesty’s Representative, responsible for running the course and determining entrance to the Royal Enclosure.

The Ascot Authority was established in 1913 by an Act of Parliament, with His Majesty’s Representative becoming Senior Trustee. Today, as Ascot Authority (Holdings) Limited, Ascot has a formal board chaired by Sir Francis Brooke Bt., who also serves as His Majesty’s Representative at Ascot. monarch that Ascot has operated under having succeeded Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. As an owner and breeder of racehorses, Her Late Majesty took a keen interest in the races and had great success with her own horses over the years, including most famously winning the Gold Cup with Estimate in 2013.

The jockeys riding the Sovereign’s horses can be identified by the Royal racing colours: purple body with gold braid, scarlet sleeves, and black velvet cap with gold fringe – the same as those of King Edward VII and George IV as Prince Regent.

During Royal Ascot, the Monarch traditionally presents the Gold Cup and the Platinum Jubilee Stakes. New versions of these trophies are made each year and presented to the winners to keep.

Ascot Racecourse closed for a £200 million redevelopment in 2004, and was reopened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th June 2006.

HIGHLIGHTS AT ASCOT SINCE 2006

There have been several landmark occasions since Ascot Racecourse reopened in 2006 and none more memorable than two special Gold Cup days – when Yeats completed his four-timer of Gold Cup wins in 2009 and when Queen Elizabeth II won the stayers’ championship with Estimate in 2013.

In 2011, Ascot celebrated its tercentenary and staged the inaugural QIPCO British Champions Day, now the culmination of the European elite Flat racing season.

The great Frankel won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day in 2011, and the curtain came down on the career of officially the best horse of all time when he won the Champion Stakes a year later. Sir Henry Cecil’s pride and joy won five of his remarkable unbeaten run of 14 races at Ascot. 2012 also saw Ascot at the heart of the country’s celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, with the Golden Jubilee Stakes renamed the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and won by the great Australian mare, Black Caviar. Renamed again in 2022 as the Platinum Jubilee Stakes, the race became one of two contests at Royal Ascot worth £1 million in prize money and victory went to Godolphin’s Naval Crown.

Ascot has continued to cement its reputation as Europe’s premier destination for the best horses in the world. In recent years it is the Americans who have had most success, with Tepin’s win in the 2016 Queen Anne Stakes and Lady Aurelia’s King’s Stand Stakes victory the following year being notable highlights. The latter filly was trained by Wesley Ward, who has now saddled 12 winners at the Royal Meeting, including Campanelle who was successful twice in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the world’s best sprinter, Nature Strip, travelled over from Australia and produced a brilliant performance to win the King’s Stand Stakes.

It is not just international horses which Ascot is known for, of course. Jockeys also come from all over the world to ride here – perhaps most notably at the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup, a unique fixture in the global racing calendar which each year sees many of world’s top jockeys compete for points to lift racing’s ultimate team prize, with four teams battling it out across a thrilling eight-race contest.

While the grandeur of the Royal Meeting takes centre stage each June, Ascot is also renowned for hosting Europe’s premier midsummer middle-distance contest the following month. The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes has been won by many of racing’s most distinguished champions including Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Dancing Brave, Nashwan, Galileo and - more recently - the remarkable mare Enable, who in July 2020 made history by becoming the first horse to win three renewals of this prestigious prize.