ASCOT -
ITS HISTORY AND TRADITIONS It was Queen Anne who first saw the potential for a racecourse at Ascot, which in those days was called East Cote. Whilst out riding in 1711, she came upon an area of open heath, not far from Windsor Castle, that looked an ideal place for “horses to gallop at full stretch.” The first race meeting ever held at Ascot took place on Saturday, August 11, 1711. Her Majesty’s Plate, worth 100 Guineas and open to any horse, mare or gelding over the age of six, was the inaugural event. Each horse was required to carry a weight of 12st and seven runners took part.
time, but the first four-day meeting took place in 1768. Arguably, the meeting as we know it today started to take shape with the introduction of the Gold Cup in 1807. Gold Cup Day is the third day of Royal Ascot. Although you won’t find it in any marketing or promotional literature, Thursday is colloquially known as Ladies’ Day.
This contest bore little resemblance to racing seen at Ascot today. The seven horses were all English Hunters, quite different to the speedy thoroughbreds that race on the Flat now. The race consisted of three separate heats which were four miles long (each heat was about the length of the Grand National), so the winner would have been a horse with tremendous stamina. Sadly, there is no record of the winner of the first Plate.
The term Ladies’ Day seems to have been first used in 1823, when an anonymous poet described the Thursday of the Royal Meeting as “Ladies’ Day, when the women, like angels, look sweetly divine.” In the formative years, Thursday was certainly the dominant day in terms of the racing, attracting the largest crowds and, it must be assumed from the emergence of the term, more ladies!
The racecourse was laid out by William Lowen, who was assisted by a team of helpers; William Erlybrown, a carpenter, Benjamin Cluchett, a painter, and John Grape, who prepared the paperwork for racing. The first permanent building was erected in 1793 by George Slingsby, a Windsor builder. It held 1,650 people and was used until 1838.
Almost every racecourse markets a Ladies’ Day now but the great charm of the original is that it has not been manufactured. It is the public, not the racecourse, who call it Ladies’ Day. The Gold Cup is Ascot’s oldest surviving race, and the winning owners receive a gold trophy which becomes their property. Trophies to keep are only awarded for ten races at the Royal Meeting, the others being the Queen’s Vase, inaugurated in 1838 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s accession, the Royal Hunt Cup (1843) and the remaining Group 1 races.
In 1813, Parliament passed an Act of Enclosure. This Act ensured that Ascot Heath, although the property of the Crown, would be kept and used as a racecourse for the public in the future. Racing at Ascot was now secure. The precise origin of the Royal Meeting is unclear. It was an event that evolved, perhaps, rather than was introduced at a specific
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