Enter the starting gates – it’s time for Royal Ascot 2015
A flurry of bets, flutes of Champagne for all and a menagerie of over the top head gear – that’s horse racing at Royal Ascot! The 2015 meet got underway yesterday (Tuesday) and as usual, it was the inevitable mix of Royalty, tradition, teeny weeny jockeys and some fine thoroughbreds both on and off the track.
What immediately caught our eye was the mini media frenzy about Princess Zara. In her bold canary yellow ensemble, the moment she touched her tummy for a nanosecond was caught on camera, the gossip started to fly…is she expecting? Categorically denied, apparently Miss Philips still very much has her sights set on competing in the Rio 2016 Olympics, so she’s not hanging up her jodphurs yet, apparently!
Being opening day, day one of the races always brings out the big names. The Royal Enclosure (which is by invitation only) is packed to the gills with lords, ladies, prince’s and princesses and this year was no exception, with the likes of Prince Edward and Sophie, Prince Harry, Zara and Mike, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice all eagerly watching the gee gees.
As Solow ridden by Maxime Guyon galloped home to win the Queen Anne Stakes and Gleneagles won the St James’s Palace Stakes, with Ryan Moore on the reins, it has been estimated that over £100 million will be spent placing bets during Ascot. You could even bet on what colour hat the Queen would be wearing for the opening Royal Procession and, after a late burst of bets for pink, which indeed the hat was, betting firms were reeling at the losses before the horses had even picked up their hooves!
Indeed the Queen and Prince Philip arrive every day of this five day race meet by open-top horse drawn carriage, with the daily Royal Procession marking the start of each day at 14:00 before the first race at 14:30. The Queen holds an impressive track record – she’s attended every single Royal Ascot every year of her reign and never pulled a sickie!
So today is Wednesday, the race card highlight is the Prince of Wale’s stakes and the stewards tell us the going is good to firm. Studying the form of each runner, you can’t help wonder where the owners get some of those horse names from. There’s ‘Luck of the Kitten’, ‘Harry Hurricane’, ‘Cry Me A River’ (Justin Tiumberlake fans maybe?), ‘Gailo Chop’ and the inspired ‘You’re Fired’, who, it would appear isn’t actually owned by Lord Sugar, to name but a few.
Thursday is the big one for the ladies. This is the day that the most flamboyant and outrageous millinery is de rigueur it would seem. The waiting press photographers have a field day and despite a strict Royal Ascot dress code, there are always a few ‘interesting’ style choices to behold.
And we have to admit, even if you don’t follow horse racing, there’s something about the pomp, circumstance and 300 year old customs of Royal Ascot that make it one of the most exciting meets on the race calendar in the UK. We’re trotting off to place a cheeky fiver on ‘Caspar Netscher’ in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, which is Saturday’s closing race, just because we think the name is a bit quirky!