ROYAL ASCOT UNCOVERED: Ten facts about the world’s most revered race meeting

June 6, 2022

Royal Ascot 2022 is just days away and our Flexjet team is making final preparations to welcome our Owners and special guests to this pinnacle of the British social calendar. As the official private aviation supplier for the event, we will be hosting and presenting the private heliport adjacent to the racecourse, in addition to providing Red Label-style hospitality in the Royal Enclosure.

With so much rich history and pageantry surrounding Royal Ascot, in addition to its elite sporting pedigree, we asked our partners at Great British Racing International to uncover ten key facts for Royal Ascot 2022 racegoers, in this most anticipated of years.

1. In 2022, Royal Ascot will be grander than ever before, as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations elevate the festivities around Her Majesty The Queen’s racecourse. Until 2020, when the pandemic put Royal Ascot behind closed doors, The Queen had not missed a single day of the meeting since ascending to the throne 70 years ago, with her first visit taking place in 1946, before she became Queen.
2. Over the five days of Royal Ascot, the very best British thoroughbreds are poised to take on the finest global talent across a total of 35 races, with around £1,700,000 in prize money up for grabs each day.
3. There will be representation from nine countries including Australia, America and Japan. International ones-to-watch include the world’s best sprinters: Nature Strip from Australia and Golden Pal from America, who are set to clash in the King’s Stand Stakes on the opening day. Last year’s Japanese Derby winner, Shahryar, could be the headline act in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on the Wednesday.
4. Leading the British team into battle, Stradivarius is on track to try and match Yeats’ record of four wins in the Gold Cup, while the appearance of the world’s highest rated racehorse, Baaeed, in the opening race of the meeting, the Queen Anne Stakes, will be eagerly anticipated.
5. In 2013, Her Majesty was richly rewarded for her uncompromising commitment to Royal Ascot when her filly Estimate triumphed in the Gold Cup, widely regarded as the most prestigious race of the week. She is the first Monarch to have won this historic race, which is held on the spectacular Ladies Day (Thursday).
6. For the first time this year, those lucky enough to attend the closing day of the Royal Meeting will have the chance to cheer in the first ever winner of the Platinum Jubilee Stakes, as the Diamond Jubilee Stakes receives a name upgrade. This race joins the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in being worth £1 million in prize money.
7. This year will also mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal Box at Ascot, commissioned by King George IV in 1822.
8. Until the 20th century, top hats at Ascot did not feature black ribbon around them. However, in 1910 King Edward VII sadly passed away shortly before Ascot opened its gates and all attendees were required to wear black to honour the mourning of his death. This tradition has continued since and is now formally considered the appropriate dress for top hats.
9. The first royal carriage procession took place in 1825, at the request of King George IV and originally featured a full lap of the track. Today however the procession is only to the paddock but is widely considered one of the most iconic moments of each day at the festival.
10. Did you know that before the first race begins each day the bookmakers are open for business, taking bets on what colour the queen’s hat will be? In a tradition that dates back several years, it provides great entertainment to those that dare to speculate and creates even more of an atmosphere around the Queen’s eagerly anticipated arrival.