Royal Ascot: Behind the scenes in pictures
- Published
Grand stand: Royal Ascot is a unique British sporting and social event where top racing mixes with high fashion. In June 2013, BBC Sport's Frank Keogh went behind the scenes at the Berkshire racecourse where 280,000 spectators gathered from Tuesday to Saturday
Famous faces: At a main entrance reception area, this publicity photograph shows some of the celebrities who have graced the meeting in the past, including entertainer Bruce Forsyth and comedian Ronnie Corbett. Well-known people from stage, screen and sport present many of the big-race trophies
Plain sailing: While the course's Royal Enclosure has a stiff dress code, with cravats and fascinators (mini-headwear) not permitted, international visitors can wear their country's national dress and service personnel - from soldiers to sailors - roam around in their uniforms
Champagne moments: The sound of champagne corks popping can be heard regularly - 50,000 times over the five days, in fact. At the swish Moet & Chandon bar, the cheapest bottle is £75, with one particular sparkling rose costing £322. Punters get through 175,000 pints of beer during the meeting, while over 5,000 kilos of salmon are also consumed
Royal Hatscot – An estimated £90m is wagered on Royal Ascot races with bookmakers industry-wide. One daily puzzle for some punters is the colour of the Queen’s hat. Devon-based bookie Dave Spicer admits his odds on the correct colour are cramped. “It’s a fun bet, but we are mindful of people earlier on the route ringing pals before The Queen arrives at the course. We were picked off by people who got wind of the colour one day last year.”
Royal Procession: The Queen arrives at the course at 1400 BST, half an hour before racing starts, having set off from Windsor Castle in the first of four carriages that sit four people each. She is normally accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, but he missed this year’s meeting after an exploratory stomach operation. There are 21 horses in the procession
Ascot calling: High above the crowds, which reach a daily peak of about 70,000 on the meeting’s final day, sit the commentators who have a tricky job identifying the various horses and colours. Powerful binoculars are a key part of their equipment. The callers come from various backgrounds - BBC Radio 5 live commentator John Hunt is a former policeman
Ladies’ Day: The Tootsie Rollers are a retro all-girl singing group, billing themselves as “the Andrews Sisters meets the Spice Girls”. Their acapella harmonies and striking outfits caught the attentions of many racegoers over the week
Parade ring: This is where the Royal carriages arrive, where top jockeys are introduced before the first race and where racegoers can watch the horses being paraded before riders mount to compete. The steps are packed with people for the Queen’s arrival and to greet big-race winners
Feeling the heat: At the Greenyard Grill, racegoers can sit around a wooden table that has a barbecue grill built into the middle. For £35-a-person, you get a three-course meal, with options including lobster and steak burger. The racecourse blurb says ‘complementary wines also available’. That's complementary, not complimentary
Ascot champions: Dawn Approach, winner of the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2012, parades behind a statue of the record-breaking Yeats, who won the Gold Cup at Ascot four times. Dawn Approach, trained in Ireland by Jim Bolger, won the St James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday in a photo finish from Toronado
On parade: Three-time champion jockey Ryan Moore on board the 2013 Gold Cup favourite Estimate just before the race starts. The four-year-old filly is owned by the Queen, who had enjoyed 21 victories over a period of 60 years at the fixture before this year’s meeting
By Royal appointment: Estimate just held on to win the Gold Cup on Ladies’ Day, just 40 minutes after another emotional success when Riposte won the Ribblesdale Stakes for Lady Cecil, the widow of the meeting’s all-time leading trainer Sir Henry Cecil, who died aged 70 a week before the event he adored
Winner's enclosure: The Queen usually presents the Gold Cup, but after her filly Estimate triumphed, she was handed the trophy (which she gets to keep as a new version is made each year) by her son Andrew, the Duke of York. Fellow racehorse breeder and owner Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, was among those on hand to offer congratulations
Frankel sense: First-time racegoer Hannah King, 24, of Sutton, Surrey, poses in front of a life-size photo of the retired champion racehorse Frankel. Trained in Newmarket by the late Sir Henry Cecil and the mount of jockey Tom Queally, Frankel won all 14 of his races before being retired by owner Prince Khalid Abdullah
The greatest? The Ascot Shop sold 10 of these Frankel bronzes, priced £160 each, in the opening four days. The detailing on the jockey includes owner Prince Khalid Abdullah's colours of green jersey, pink sash and cap, and white sleeves. Now aged five, Frankel began a breeding career at Banstead Manor Stud, near Newmarket, in February. His services cost £125,000 a time, usually on a no-foal, no–fee basis, and he is valued at £100m
Communal singsong: Ten minutes after the last race, thousands of Union Jack-waving racegoers from the Royal Enclosure and Grandstand Admission areas gather around the bandstand to sing a series of old favourites, including Sweet Chariot and Land of Hope and Glory. The tradition was started in the 1970s when Jinny Beaumont, wife of the then clerk of the course, Sir Nicholas Beaumont, started off the singing
Promenading: The gates at Royal Ascot open at 10:30 BST each day, four hours before the opening race of the card, leaving plenty of time to check out the runners or relax ahead of the action
Magnificent Seven: Jockey Frankie Dettori famously went through the card, riding all seven of the day's winners at another of Ascot’s meetings (in September 1996) at the combined odds of 25,000-1. A statue marks his trademark flying dismount, although there were to be none this week as the jockey went home winless from the meeting for the first time since 2005. Dettori managed four second-placed finishes, including three on the last day
Final furlong: The sun sets after another five days of highs and lows at the Royal Ascot meeting. Next year's fixture takes place from Tuesday 17 to Saturday 21 June, 2014
- Published22 June 2013
