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Ascot, Berkshire: Royal Ascot is many things to many people – it's the finest five days of racing you could ever imagine and also the height of social sophistication as every fashionista worth his or her salt will tell you.
But more than anything Royal Ascot is about racing glory and perhaps no one can stake a greater claim to that than the incomparable Frankie Dettori who has ridden 39 winners at the meeting since 1990.
The Italian superstar, is also associated with the racetrack for an incredible sporting achievement, when in September 1996 he rode every winner on a seven-race card.
Dettori's appeal is that he combines extraordinary riding ability with a rare humour and style, a combination that has helped shape his image and turn him into a household name.
But yet, his last two visits to Royal Ascot, have been less than spectacular – Dettori rode just the one winner on each occasion with Godolphin star Ramonti providing him with lone success 12 months back when he stormed to victory in the Queen Anne Stakes (Gr 1).
Big victories
Godolphin, for whom he is the retained rider together with Australian Kerrin McEvoy, are amassing a strong team for an assault at this year's meeting in an attempt to recapture their glory days of 1998 and 2004 when they won the championship at Royal Ascot.
The year 1998 was the stable's, and Dettori's best year, when the two combined to win seven races including a monumental win in the Gold Cup (Gr 1) with Kayf Tara.
A strong string in 2004 helped Godolphin claim six wins among them big victories in the Gold Cup with Papineau, Refuse To Bend in the Queen Anne Stakes (Gr 1) and Doyen in the Hardwicke Stakes (Gr 1). Going by the sheer depth of entries for this year's Royal meeting Godolphin, and Dettori, look set to make their mark.
On the first day of the five-day meeting, they have four intended runners including Derby disappointment Rio De La Plata who runs in the featured St. James's Palace Stakes together with stable companion Alexandros.
Campaign
Godolphin have an incredible record in Great Britain since the stable was launched in 1994, having won 456 races from just 885 runners.
At Ascot alone they have scored a phenomenal 56 successes and look set to add to that number when the meeting starts tomorrow.
Meanwhile top Irish jockey Johnny Murtagh, who enjoyed a successful winter campaign in Dubai, has been installed as favourite to win the London Crown trophy at the Royal Meeting.
Murtagh, who replaced controversial jockey Kieren Fallon as stable jockey to Aidan O'Brien at Ballydole Stables in Ireland, will team up with 2000 Guineas winner Henrythenavigator and Gold Cup hat-trick seeking Yeats during the course of the week.
Ryan Moore, who is also a regular in Dubai, is a second favourite with Dettori being the third most fancied rider.
ROYAL ASCOT - A RICH HISTORY
There can be few sporting events that are able to match Royal Ascot's rich history, and fewer still that can truly be said to be flourishing every bit as much in the present day as they were the best part of 300 years ago. Royal Ascot is an event like no other and, as the racecourse approaches its tercentenary in 2011, its prominence in the racing, social and, indeed, commercial world – it is Europe's biggest and highest profile corporate hospitality event – has never been higher. Over the year, although Ascot stages only approximately 2% of British racing fixtures, it plays host to no fewer than a third of Britain's top flight (Group One) events. It also accounts for approximately 10% of industry attendance (circa 275,000 during Royal Ascot week alone).
ROYAL ASCOT FACTS AND FIGURES
- 12 big screens will be on site during Royal Ascot, the biggest being 100 square metres. There are also 959 permanent Sony Bravia TV screens, plus 370 temporary screens, requiring 30km of temporary cabling, which takes six cable installers 20 days to lay.
- 700 bales of shavings and 500 bales of paper are used for stable bedding over the week.
- Over 150,000 visits were made to the Ascot website during Royal Ascot week 2007.
- Approximately 400 helicopters and 1,000 Limos descend on Royal Ascot every year.
- There are 2400 cleaners working on a 24 hour
cycle during the week.
JOCKEYS' ROLE TO BE CELEBRATED
In a first for Royal Ascot, the leading jockey at the meeting will wear a leader's armband, akin to the yellow jersey in cycling, with the armband changing every time there is a new name at the top of the London Clubs International Charity Trophy table.
Jimmy Fortune, last year's top rider at Royal Ascot, will wear the armband during a presentation of the jockeys to the crowd which will take place on the opening day before the arrival of the Royal Procession, another event taking place for the first time in 2008 with the backing and considerable assistance of the Professional Jockeys' Association (PJA). Fortune will wear the armband in the opening Queen Anne Stakes, should he have a ride.
KING'S STAND BECOMES SEVENTH GROUP 1 AT ROYAL MEETING
Royal Ascot will commence with three consecutive Group One races tomorrow following the successful application to the European Pattern Committee to upgrade Europe's top rated five furlong sprint in 2007, the King's Stand Stakes, to the top level. The promotion of the King's Stand Stakes brings the total number of championship level races at Royal Ascot to seven, and ensures that all three of Britain's Global Sprint Challenge races (King's Stand, Golden Jubilee, Darley July Cup) will be officially top flight contests going forward.
ROYAL ASCOT PRIZE MONEY HITS £4 MILLION
There will be £4 million prize money on offer at Royal Ascot in 2008, representing an increase of £335,000 on the 2007 total.
"Top quality fields are at the heart of every race meeting, and they are more prize money dependent than ever before. With that in mind, we are delighted to have reached the £4 million milestone for 2008," said Charles Barnett, Chief Executive at Ascot.
Ascot's Global Sprint Challenge races, the King's Stand Stakes and the Golden Jubilee Stakes, have been continuously enhanced in terms of prize money and are further increased this year with the King's Stand up £50,000 to £250,000 and the Golden Jubilee Stakes up £25,000 to £375,000.
DID YOU KNOW...
- Since Queen Anne founded Ascot Racecourse back in 1711, a further 11 Monarchs have acceded to the British throne.
- There are just four races run at Ascot commemorating racehorses – The Brown Jack Stakes, Hyperion Stakes, Sagaro Stakes and the Reynoldstown Chase.
- Back in 1954, The Queen had a famous Royal Ascot triumph with the brilliant Aureole, who had suffered a minor eye injury a few days before the Meeting. When visiting the paddock just before the race, The Queen asked her jockey, Eph Smith, who wore a hearingaid, whether he would win. The reply came: "Well, Ma'am, we are rather handicapped. The horse is blind in one eye and I'm deaf!"
- In 2005, Ascot auctioned some 300 lots of memorabilia associated with the old stand. The auction raised £389,965 with Racing Welfare the primary beneficiary with the bulk of this coming from a bid of £280,000 for the wrought cast iron entranceway from the track to the winners' enclosure,
- A familiar sight at Royal Ascot is the arrival of horsedrawn carriages along the High Street, to the sound of hunting horns. These Carriages belong to members of the country's carriage clubs, who stable their horses during racing whilst they enjoy their club facilities on course prior to departure.
- In the 1920s, women were still forbidden to smoke in the Royal Enclosure. Now everyone is! Inside at least.
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