I gave Royal Ascot week some attention this year. There were three reasons. Having won a bet on the Derby which led to winning £200 net when Chelsea won the European Cup I contemplated doing so again. It the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Year and thought one of her horses would win. I have always been fascinated by displays of wealth, despite the lottery and unfairness of those who participate and those of us who do not.
Royal Ascot is after all the perennial major social event of each year in terms of posh dressing, posh nosh and extravagance which anyone and everyone can participate if they have the dosh. The reason why this is a banker event is that the Queen has been attending not just one day but every day of the week, Tuesday to Saturday and apart from illness, come rain or shine she is there arriving in the first of four state livery open carriages accompanied by her special guests and other members of the Royal Family. Despite the torrents of rain elsewhere she only needed to put up a costume coloured fringed see through umbrella once and she looked great and happy in several pastel shades throughout the week. She was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, who looked his age and glad to be able to participate after his recent ill health. On one of the days she was accompanied by the ninety four year old former horse racing Peter O’Sullivan so the three of them notched up 270 years between them with the second guest only in his fifties. The cheers were genuine including some spontaneous bouts of three cheers.
Apart from Her Majesty, the owners, trainers, jockeys and BBC commentators in what I understand is the last year when they will cover the event for the time being, I wonder how many of the 50000 a day participating attend more than once, given the essential ingredient that if you are female you do not go wearing the same outfit twice. In addition to wearing a smart dress you must also wear a hat which no one does usually these days. There are restrictions for the men on when they can remove their black or grey Top Hat, unless they are from overseas when they wear their national dress, which sparked one Australian to appear in the traditional bush hat with bobbing corks to ward off the flies. He had the other 5000 Aussis attending together with the thousands watching on a large screen in Melbourne in the early hours of the morning nearly got their comeuppance as will be reported.
This year while tickets were available at a price to anyone you had to comply to the dress code for each designated area with a glossy brochure with style pictures listing rules and showing the preferred approach. This indicates the serious intent of the course owners to make Royal Ascot even more of a posh event than previous, In the past in the fifties to seventies it was tradition of stars and starlets, up and coming politicians and the whores of criminals to gain international publicity by wearing the most outrageous of outfits to attract the TV Lens and National press, especially on what regarded as Ladies Day. Now there are daily opportunities for anyone with a good media agent to place their photo or film clip before the world if they are prepared to show flesh however expensively the little of the rest is covered.
The Course proprietors and advisers from the Palace felt that recently the displays of bare midriff and the fascinators was all getting too much as well as skirts which just about covered the thigh. I did not know about fascinators until they were worn by the Duke of Yorks daughters at the Wedding of William and Kate. According to the Ascot guide fascinators can still be worn by young women between the ages of ten years and sixteen but after than you can wear a small base hat but the preference is clearly for the full head covering with a wide brim.
Having said anyone can go, the one exception is a car park where a place can be handed down generation upon generation unless presumable sold at a price rather like Wimbledon or Lords debenture seats. You have to have been on four previous occasions to purchase entry to the Royal Enclosure which provides a close up view of the Queen arriving in her carriages and an overview of the paddock where owners and trainers give their final instructions to their jockeys after the horses have paraded and the jockeys mounted up as well as victory parade and prize giving for the winning and placed horses. This year the first noteworthy prize giver was Jenson Button before flying off to the Euro Grand Prix in Spain. Two of the races had prizes around the half a million mark with others over £100000, Two bets of £100000 were placed and one of £50000 was mentioned on short odds favourites who both won at ten to one against yielding a profit of £10000 and five to one which yielded £20000 although the latter was nearly caught up at the finishing post demonstrating once and for all that the British Irish Thoroughbred as well as the French and USA are in general a class or two above their Aussi cousins and who won the Ashes back to back recently my beauties?
The grandstand is one of the most spectacular and attractive sporting viewing accommodations in the world and I challenge anyone to provide evidence of better, Sky please note? There are 225 boxes for which full catering must be provided by the Ascot organisation on the top tiers but with the panoramic restaurant topping this. I was not able to find the prices of the boxes but it was possible to find the cost of the various packages with between £1000 and £1650 for the Panoramic and £550 for a chalet place looking back on to the grandstand and finishing line.
For the DIY inclined or less wealthy, picnic lunches can be provided for between £50 and £75 a person with traditional tea boxes at £50 for two.
The Royal Carriages Restaurant provided one car park place per couple and Grandstand admission with balcony view, Race Card, Royal Ascot Magazine and Racing Newspaper and TV viewing. You can start the day with a glass of champagne or Pimms No 1 accompanied by a Mese en Bouche (usually chef’s tasters for the food ahead) but which in this instance were mature cheese straws and Osaka rice crackers. The starter included poached and smoked salmon with an herb fromage Blanc. The main dish was rump of English lamb with posh nosh veg followed by mandarin parfait and miniature shortbreads, the cheese selection and biscuits, coffee or tea and chocolates strawberry and champagne.
The afternoon tea included smoked salmon cream and chives on brown bread, traditional coronation chicken on white bread, egg and cress and beef horseradish, scones jam and cream, lemon drizzle cake, chocolate éclairs and teas. Oh I nearly forgot the fine wines. I am not sure if you got unlimited champagne served until thirty minutes after the last race or an unlimited bar but this was so for the highest priced panoramic lounge plus Liquors. Here there was also an Amuse Bouche of chilled garden peas, buttermilk and snow pea veloute, Serrano Ham and mint blossoms. The starter was the famous Dressed Folkstone Crab and salad, the veg with the beef included shaved truffles, rosemary and jasmine flowers or sea bass and the three Taste of Summer puds included Pink Champagne Sorbet, Lemon Parfait and a Summer Pudding with the cheeses and coffee chocks strawberry champagne as before. The afternoon tea was also similar except of the addition of raspberry and pistachio macaroons. I enjoyed some raspberries for tea today on their own alas.
And of course there is the racing with the great owners with the Arab Princes powerful and successful and the O’Brien Training dynasty with the grandson winning jockey and of course the Italian background Frankie Detorri still goings strong at 40 winning against the younger challengers within and without the great Godolphin Racing Empire.
The horse Frankel lived up to all the hype. This inbred horse with the same parent for both the sire and damn third and fourth generation won the 2000 guineas and the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Ascot in 2011 and came into the Queen Anne Stakes 1/10 odds, winning by a staggering 14 lengths to establish himself as legend. There is speculation that the horse will command stud fees in excess of £150000 and to be worth up to £100 million as a consequence. The big question is whether the horse will run again before going to stud and if so when and where.
The other star horse at the Royal Ascot meeting, Black Caviar whose colours are garish orange with black spots had travelled from Australia where the odd had become 20 to 1 against after winning a score of successive races and clocking speeds in excess of 44 miles an hour. The horse is big but did not share the fine looks and grooming of many other creatures. It was evident that horse been brought to make a cultural as well as racing point about Australia having grown up and was now equal if not better not the mother country. It just about won after being nearly caught on the line and demonstrated the limitation of the average Australian racing stock compared to that of the UK, France, the USA and Dubai and perhaps Hong Kong although obviously the scale is smaller there. Frankel versus Black Caviar would clear be no contest
I was also interested to see how the Godolphin Empire performed. This twenty year old racing giant with several hundred horses in its stables moves all those at Newmarket to Dubai for every Winter. Godolphin is approaching 2000 winners in 14 countries with nearly 200 group 1 wins since formed by the Vice President and Prime Minister of Dubai some twenty years ago. Its longest serving and successful trainer Saeed bin Suroor like their champion jockey Frankei Detorri may be past their prime but still are able to deliver when it matters most. Saeed was four times champion trainer in the naughties while the excitable Dettorie continues to prove he is one of the best of not the best flat race rider of this generation although still had along long way to go to challenge Lester Piggot.
This brings to me back to the Queen with 40 horses in training and whose horse Carlton House, a gift from the Godolphin’s, I thought I had backed each way to win when it came in second only to find I had not so lost half of the remaining original stake money and now rely on England winning the European Cup in a week’s time to keep £200 now spent win intact. She did win the Royal Vase with Estimate on Friday and by coincidence, perhaps, it was the Duke of Edinburgh who had been booked to present the prize, the first time he has done so at Ascot. Rumour has it the horse will be entered for the St Ledger at Doncaster in September although this has been denied.
Was I converted? Sort of, but only if I had the dosh. One thing I am more certain of is that my days of going to Rock concerts and festivals is over although I also believe in never say ever. My attention over the weekend has been with the Isle of Wight Festival which is being shown in 3D as well as on the Sky Arts Channel. Bruce Springsteen plays tonight and I admit I was tempted to go and see him live for a fourth time when he played at the Stadium of Light last Thursday.
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