This Tuesday (16 June 2015) will kick off five days of world class racing, pageantry, high (and dubious) fashion and some very fine dining at Royal Ascot. It takes a fair bit of planning to host 300,000 racegoers — and a considerable amount of champagne to keep them in good spirits…
Royal Ascot 2015: in numbers
1. A royal pig-out
During the event 2,400 kilos of whole sirloin beef, 3,700 rumps of lamb and 2,900 Scottish lobsters are served to guests. A further 51,000 bottles of champagne, 160,000 glasses of Pimm’s and 45,000 afternoon teas are consumed.
2. Some serious maintenance
The race track grass is cut to four inches and three miles of bunting will be be erected.
3. Big money
Royal Ascot will feature 18 Group races, including eight Group Ones, with total prize money across the five days in excess of £5.5 million.
Increasingly in recent years, the Royal Meeting attracts some of the best horses from around the globe, with around 100 runners per day.
5. A fair bit of mucking out
There are 175 stable boxes at Ascot racecourse to accommodate an average of 100 runners per day but the boxes are nearly always full with runners for the next day’s racing also accommodated. 700 bales of shavings and 500 bales of paper are used for stable bedding over the week.
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6. Quite a crowd
Around 300,000 guests are expected to attend the Royal Meeting this year to witness the spectacle.
7. Arriving in style
Approximately 400 helicopters and 1000 limousines descend on Royal Ascot across the five days, while guests are greeted by 300 in-house stewards in traditional attire and a further 700 stewarding staff.Continued below…
Ascot racecourse was established at the behest of Queen Anne in 1711. The centrepiece of Ascot’s year, Royal Ascot, is thought to have originated in the mid-18th Century and is now arguably the world’s most famous race meeting. It has been attended by British monarchs ever since its inception and each day of Royal Ascot traditionally begins with the Royal procession in which The Queen along with her family and guests parade in front of the grandstand in horse-drawn carriages.
9. Worldwide coverage
All 30 races at Royal Ascot will be shown live on Channel 4 and Racing UK and pictures are distributed to approximately 200 countries worldwide. Such is the relevance of Royal Ascot in Australia that the meeting is shown on terrestrial television there on Channel 7.
10. And finally…
The Cheese on Toast outlet on the Grandstand lawns sold the equivalent in height of the London Eye.
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.
