2013 Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot racing's most prestigious meeting and takes place each year in mid-June. It attracts some of the best horses and jockeys from around the world and is famous for its place in the racing and social calendar.

Each day of the meeting, which this year runs from Tuesday, June 18 until Saturday, June 22, contains at least one feature race, with three prestigious Group 1 contests kickstarting the opening day.

Day 1 - Tuesday, June 18

The 2013 meeting should be among the best ever and day one (Tuesday) features no fewer than three Group 1 events. They are the £350,000 1000m King’s Stand Stakes, a British leg of the Global Sprint Challenge; the £350,000 1600m Queen Anne Stakes, a likely target for Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup hero Animal Kingdom; and the £250,000 1600m St James’s Palace Stakes.

Featured Races:

• King’s Stand Stakes (Group 1)
• Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1)
• St James’s Palace Stakes (Group 1) 

Day 2 - Wednesday, June 19

Day two of Royal Ascot 2013 features yet another Group 1 event – the £500,000 2000m Princess Of Wales’s Stakes – while the supporting card includes one the meeting’s most popular handicaps, the £125,000 1600m Royal Hunt Cup. Two Group 2 races also feature on the schedule. They are the £100,000 1600m Windsor Forest Stakes, for fillies and mares aged four years and upwards; and the £75,000 1000m Queen Mary Stakes, for juvenile fillies. The £70,000 1400m Group 3 Jersey Stakes and the £50,000 1600m Sandringham Handicap complete this exciting programme.

Featured Races:

• Princess Of Wales’s Stakes (Group 1)
• Windsor Forest Stakes (Group 2)
• Queen Mary Stakes (Group 2)
• Jersey Stakes (Group 3)

Day 3 - Thursday, June 20

Thursday is always designated ‘Ladies’ Day’ at Royal Ascot and appropriately, given the glittering fashions, the afternoon’s most valuable event is the Gold Cup. A £350,000 Group 1 contest, it is staged over 4000m and has long been among the British Flat season’s most eagerly-anticipated highlights. The other unmissable Pattern-race attractions on day three of this brilliant meeting are the £125,000 Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes; the £75,000 1000m Group 2 Norfolk Stakes; and the £70,000 Group 3 2000m Tercentenary Stakes. The day’s big handicap is the Britannia Stakes.

Featured Races:

• Ascot Gold Cup (Group 1) 
• Ribblesdale Stakes (Group 2)
• Norfolk Stakes (Group 2)
• Tercetenary Stakes (Group 3)
  

Day 4 - Friday, June 21

Royal Ascot continually thrills worldwide racing fans and yet another Group 1 contest is staged on this fourth day of the fixture. Friday’s top-level event is the £250,000 1600m Coronation Stakes, a race often bringing together several European 1000 Guineas winners. Also on the card is a Group 2 event, the £150,000 2400m King Edward VII Stakes, and two Group 3 contests. These are the £60,000 3200m Queen’s Vase and the £60,000 1200m Albany Stakes. Two handicaps – the 2000m Wolferton Stakes and the 1400m Buckingham Palace Stakes – complete the card.

Featured Races:

• Coronation Stakes (Group 1)
• King Edward VII Stakes (Group 2)
  

Day 5 - Saturday, June 22

The £500,000 1200m Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes – the second British leg of the Global Sprint Challenge staged at Royal Ascot each year – is the highlight of the meeting’s concluding Saturday schedule and entries included horses from Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong and the US. A Group 2 event also features on the card – the £200,000 2400m Hardwicke Stakes – alongside the £55,000 1400m Listed Chesham Stakes. Saturday’s handicaps – the £125,000 1200m Wokingham Stakes and the £70,000 2400m Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes - always attract huge fields. 

Featured Races:

• Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Group 1) 
• Hardwicke Stakes (Group 2)

Where is the 2013 Royal Ascot?  Ascot Racecourse,
When is the 2013 Royal Ascot Race? June 18 - June 21, 2013
 
Royal Ascot History

Royal Ascot is one of the most prestigious race meetings with nearly 300 years of tradition and is one of the highlights of Britain's social and sporting calendar. Smart dress, fine food, champagne and excellent racing are all combined in one social event which lasts 4 days in June.

In 1711 Queen Anne, whilst riding in the forests around Windsor Castle, discovered some land near a village called East Cote, now named Ascot, which seemed to her ideal for racing horses. The area was acquired for just £558 to become the Royal Racecourse with the first horse race taking place that year in the presence of the Queen and her Court.
After the death of Queen Anne, racing declined in the reign of King George I who disregarded all sports, but in 1920 racing began again at the Royal Racecourse following a format of procession and races that has hardly changed since.

More Royal Ascot History

Ascot Racecourse was founded in 1711 by Queen Anne. The first race, Her Majesty s Plate , with a purse of 100 guineas, was held on 11 August 1711. Seven horses competed, each carrying a weight of 12 stones (76 kg). This first race comprised three separate four-mile (6437 m) heats.

In 1813, Parliament passed an act to ensure that the grounds would remain a public racecourse. In 1913, Parliament passed an act creating the Ascot Authority, an entity that manages the racecourse to this day. From its creation until 1945, the only racing that took place at Ascot was the Royal Meeting, a four-day event. Since that date, more fixtures have been introduced to the grounds, notably the Steeplechase and hurdles in 1965.
Hat in the Royal Enclosure, 2009

Ascot racecourse closed for a period of twenty months on 26 September 2004, for a 185 million redevelopment funded by Allied Irish Bank and designed by Populous and Buro Happold. As owner of the Ascot estate, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth reopened the racecourse on Tuesday 20 June 2006.


However upon re-opening, the new grandstand has attracted widespread criticism for failing to provide sufficient raised viewing for patrons to watch the racing, and devoting too much space to money-spinning restaurants and corporate hospitality facilities. citation needed At the end of 2006 a 10 million programme of further alterations was announced to improve the viewing from lower levels of the grandstand using an innovative steel composite product ( SPS Sandwich plate system) to reprofile the existing concrete terraces. However, the upper levels provide far less accommodation for the everyday racegoer than was present in the former stand.

In March 2009 it was confirmed that the main sponsors of Ascot, William Hill would be ceasing their sponsorship deal, citing that the decision by the BBC to reduce live race coverage as the main reason in its decision making process.

In July 2009, Ascot Racecourse also hosted the third round of the UAE President s Cup.