Royal Ascot Races

BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND - JUNE 18: Attraction (L) ridden by K Darley wins race 3, The Coronation Stakes during the fourth day of Royal Ascot at the Ascot Racecourse on June 18, 2004 in Berkshire, England. The event has been one of the highlights of the racing and social calendar since 1711 with Queen Anne, and the royal patronage continues today with a Royal Procession taking place in front of the grandstands daily. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

The seven Group 1 races run at the Royal Ascot make it the one of the most significant meetings in the world of flat racing. Each day of the five day Royal Ascot meeting features at least one Group 1 race run during the 3:45pm time slot, with day one featuring two of these important events.

The St. James’s Palace Stakes is the first Group 1 race to be run at the Royal Ascot meeting. The St James’s Palace Stakes is the event showcase for the talents of the world’s best thoroughbred colts over a mile. This is then followed by the last of the day's three Group 1 events - the recently promoted King's Stand Stakes. Following hard on the heels of the King's Stand Stakes is the top-rated Queen Anne Stakes which is run over a mile and is open to all four-year-old and above thoroughbreds. 

Day two of the race meeting is packed full of exciting Royal Ascot races, with the undoubted highlight being the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, arguably the meeting’s biggest race over one mile and two furlongs. Open to four-year-old and above thoroughbreds, the race carries the meeting’s biggest purse – a whopping £375,000.

On the Royal Ascot meeting’s Ladies Day the crowds pour into Ascot Racecourse to witness one of the greatest flat races in the sport. Run over a longer distance of two miles and four furlongs, the Ascot Gold Cup is the first race in the Stayer’s Triple Crown and features the finest four-year-old and above thoroughbreds from around the world.

Day three introduces the most prestigious prize for three-year-old fillies at the 2009 Royal Ascot meeting. The Coronation Stakes is run over a mile on the Ascot flat course and provides an impressive spectacle with up to 36 talented thoroughbreds thundering across the turf on their way to the finishing post.

The final Group 1 event of the Royal Ascot meeting is run on the fifth day of the event. The Golden Jubilee Stakes is the only Group 1 sprint run during the Royal Ascot meeting, and thrills the crowds as a small field of the fastest three-year-old and above thoroughbreds in the world line up for the six-furlong race.

Don’t miss our detailed 2011 Royal Ascot race guides which providing you with a guide to race winners, history and betting for each race run at the 2011 Royal Ascot meeting.