2008 Royal Ascot Betting and Information

The Royal Ascot meeting, held annually at towards the end of June, is England's most famous flat racing meeting. Run over five days at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, the meeting combines top thoroughbred horse racing with one of the highlights of the English social and fashion calendar.

Royal Ascot Races

The Royal Ascot meeting includes six of the 31 Group 1 races held in England every year. Notable races include the Queen Alexandra Stakes, the Coronation Stakes and the Golden Jubilee Stakes. These races, like all Group 1 races, represent the pinnacle of flat racing and feature performances by the best thoroughbred racehorses in the sport.

The total prize money on offer at the event is in excess of £3.5 million, and is contested by trainers, racehorses and jockeys from around the world. The jewel in the Royal Ascot crown is the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup, one of the greatest flat races in the world.

Royal Pageantry

Like many of England's most prestigious flat race meetings, the Royal Ascot is the product of Royal enthusiasm for the sport that saw dozens of races being set up across the country between the 1500s and 1800s. The Royal Ascot meeting itself grew out of Queen Anne's purchase of the Ascot grounds in 1711 and the festival that eventually grew around the races held there.

Today the Royal Ascot is still enthusiastically supported by the Royal Family who attends each day of the races. The Queen is transported to the race from nearby Windsor Castle in a horse-drawn carriage followed by a procession of Royal Family members and householders, a spectacle that signifies the timeless grandeur of the event.