Flat racing’s richest and most prestigious week comes to Channel 4 for the very first time in 2013 as it provides the most extensive coverage of Royal Ascot ever seen on British television.
With 30 high-class races held over the course of five days, including five at the top Group 1 level, the Royal Meeting is an unrivalled spectacle with a huge international profile of runners and riders, as well as prize money now averaging £1 million per day.
The racing is almost always ultra-competitive, but the five-day meeting is also a key date in the social calendar of high-society types as they take part in their own style stakes.
Hats, from the sublime to the ridiculous, are all part of the unique Royal Ascot scene as designers specifically earmark the week to showcase creations they hope will be given extensive publicity.
While some have their eyes fixed on the fashions and endless supply of champagne, the majority will be soaking in the unique and fascinating blend of high society and incredible racing.
Flat racing’s great and good will descend upon the royal racetrack for an occasion rich in every sense – heritage, sporting merit, and the vast wealth represented by the crowds of dukes, earls and oligarchs strutting before the grandstand.
This pinnacle of the social calendar always attracts a stellar cast of renowned international horses, all of whom will be bidding to earn their slice of history against the best equine talent that Britain has to offer.
As always, Her Majesty the Queen and members of the Royal Family will be in attendance during the meeting, with each day beginning with the iconic Royal Procession.
Once the pageantry concludes, a record £5m in prize money up for grabs in six daily races during the five-day meeting, 30 in total.
Unlike other famous British meetings like the Grand National and The Derby, the Royal Meeting features a vast selection of unmissable major races.
It features seven high-profile races from the QIPCO British Champions Series, designed to provide a easy-to-follow narrative for racing and general sports fans alike during the Flat season.
The opening race of the week – the Queen Anne Stakes – features the US-trained Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, who travels back to the UK to take on the best of Europe’s milers.
Also on Tuesday, the three-way tussle between Dawn Approach, Magician and Toronado is renewed in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
Ireland’s Dawn Approach, the superb Newmarket 2,000 Guineas winner, has a reputation to retrieve after a surprise defeat in the Derby earlier this month.
On Wednesday, 2012 Newmarket 2,000 Guineas and Epsom Derby winner Camelot gets the chance of revenge on his most recent conqueror Al Kazeem when the two horses face off again in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
The Queen will also be looking to add to her tally of Royal Ascot winners. Her horse Estimate will be bidding to win the Ascot Gold Cup on Thursday afternoon.
There is an intriguing rematch between the top two finishers in the 1,000 Guineas on Friday, as Sky Lantern battles with Just The Judge in the Coronation Stakes.
The week-long extravaganza concludes on Saturday with six premier races, including the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes.
Royal Ascot 2013 will also pay homage to the late Sir Henry Cecil, the legendary 10-time champion trainer, who passed away shortly before the meeting, aged 70.
Responsible for 25 British Classic winners, including the imperious Frankel, Cecil was also the leading handler at Royal Ascot with a record 75 successes.
As a fitting tribute to a much-loved sporting figure, Friday Queen’s Vase will be titled “The Queen’s Vase In Memory of Sir Henry Cecil”. There will also be a period of silence after the Royal Procession on Tuesday.
The hats, the pageantry, the Queen in her carriage, the tops ‘n’ tails, the champagne and the incredible racing all come together to form one of Britain’s most iconic sporting events, all live for the first time on Channel 4.
All the pageantry, spectacle, glamour and high-class racing of Royal Ascot will be broadcast for the first time on Channel 4 in 2013.
The event, associated with the BBC for the past five decades, moved to Channel 4 following its four-year deal as British racing’s sole terrestrial rights holder.
To mark its first Royal Ascot, Channel 4 will provide the most extensive network coverage of a British race meeting ever seen on terrestrial television – 30 hours in total.
All 30 races will be shown live and in full on Channel 4 – plus in high-definition on Channel 4 HD, incorporating over 31 hours of live action with six daily races on Channel 4 Racing, plus a feast of programming to support this grand annual sporting occasion.
This includes daily editions of the Morning Line at 7.55am each morning, nightly highlights and an extensive online service.
Live coverage of each day’s racing dominates Channel 4’s afternoon schedules, running from 1.40pm to 6.00pm and allows for 50-minutes of build-up, features and coverage of the Royal Procession before the first race begins at 2.30pm.
Channel 4’s dedicated summer presentation team combines familiar and first time faces.
The incomparable BAFTA award-winning presenter Clare Balding introduces live coverage of all five day’s of racing.
Co-presenter Nick Luck will be alongside regular Channel 4 experts Jim McGrath, Mick Fitzgerald and Graham Cunningham.
They will provide unrivalled analysis from a newly introduced track-side studio overlooking the main grandstand and Royal Enclosure.
New Channel 4 Racing recruit Gina Bryce joins Rishi Persad and Emma Spencer in conducting roving reports from across the racecourse.
With Persad and Spencer having unique access to the stables, jockeys changing room and steward’s room, all the atmosphere from the Royal Meeting combined with informative features, ensures that Channel 4 viewers will be closer to the action than ever before.
Fashion from Royal Ascot will be integrated within the live programming and presented by a dedicated fashion team, led by Gina Bryce.
Adept fashion producer Rollo Ross will team Brix Smith-Start, a stylist on Gok Wan’s Clothes Roadshow, with a mix of Channel 4 talent, designers, milliners and fashion industry professionals to appear across the week.
Channel 4’s principal race commentator Simon Holt will call all 30 races during the week, while Tanya Stevenson is also on hand to relay the betting markets alongside Irish counterpart Brian Gleeson.
Award-winning writer and broadcster Alastair Down completes the line-up to deliver his distinctive daily essay-style preview packages.
In total, 42 cameras will be deployed for the Royal Meeting across the five days.
This includes four cameras in the studio, eleven wireless cameras that will cover every part of the racecourse including the Royal Enclosure and for the first time at Royal Ascot, Channel 4 will deliver live injects from the racecourse stables seeing the horses depart for the big race of the day.
The traditional tracking camera and hi-motion cameras will be used to capture the fast moving racing action.
Other equipment includes the Camcat which will run on 600 metre wires along the inside of the track looking back towards Ascot’s magnificent grandstand and the Vortex camera, that travels vertically from one to 30 metres in seconds, and will be positioned near the bandstand overlooking the paddock.
Supported by the latest enhanced sound system – Channel 4’s coverage is set to capture racing’s most social and iconic events of the year in glorious fashion.
Commenting on Channel 4’s debut at Royal Ascot, sports editor Jamie Aitchison said:
“For the first time ever all six races are been shown on terrestrial television because every race on the Royal Ascot card deserves to be screened.
“Punters will even get an extra hour every morning with The Morning Line plus a highlights show every evening.
“It’s a tremendous honour for us to have Royal Ascot within our racing portfolio and we very much intend to deliver like we have at all our premier meetings.”
Reinforcing the channel’s commitment to racing, Channel 4 has filmed its third bespoke marketing trail for the much anticipated Royal Meeting (see above).
Filmed at Langleybury Mansion in Hertfordshire, the trailer stages a luncheon at which a butler welcomes two racehorses to the party.
The campaign has been produced by Channel 4’s in house creative agency 4creative – the team behind 2012’s acclaimed Meet the Superhumans Paralympics campaign and the Original Extreme Sport campaign for Channel 4’s first Grand National earlier this year.
Channel 4’s digital platforms will carry a comprehensive racing service across the summer season to support viewers’ experience.
Multi-media live text commentary, the Channel 4 Racing App, Horse Tracker and more are all available via channel4.com/racing.
Carl Hicks, Executive Producer for IMG, says: “From 1997 to 2005 I edited the BBC’s Royal Ascot coverage and I’m delighted to be back, renewing my association of this great event and new racecourse facilities.
“Royal Ascot is arguably the greatest Flat-Racing meeting in the world. You have horses coming in from the USA, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Hong Kong, as well as Great Britain, Ireland and France.
“On the back of the Investec Derby, we have produced a ton of informative features to complement this iconic international event.
“Within our coverage we hope to capture that unique mixture of top quality racing, Royal Patronage and the fabulous backdrop provided by the 300,000 plus racegoers who turn up, dressed in their fineries, from the Royal Enclosure to the Silver Ring.”
As well as featuring all the spectacle, glamour and fashions on display at this year’s Royal Ascot, Channel 4’s coverage will pay tribute to the late Sir Henry Cecil.
Tuesday’s programmes will include a special feature Cecil penned and voiced by Alastair Down. Channel 4 will also screen the one minute’s silence in the great 10-time champion trainer’s memory following the Royal Procession on the opening day.
WATCH Clare Balding’s tribute to Henry Cecil (via 4OD)
Dedicated racing channel At The Races will also cover all 30 Royal Ascot races live this week.
ATR’s team of presenters will be live from 9.00am every morning reporting the biggest stories direct from the course, while its roving reporters will be in the right place to give viewers all the essential pre and post-race coverage of this fantastic sporting event.
Former Channel 4 presenters Derek Thompson, Mike Cattermole John McCririck will be part of ATR’s presentation team throughout the week, along with Martin Kelly, Sean Boyce, Zoey Bird and Robert Cooper.
Royal Ascot 2013 will be the last to be covered by At The Races as live coverage passes over to rival Racing UK from 2014 onwards.
CLICK HERE for ATR’s Royal Ascot TV schedule
Clare Balding and the Channel 4 Racing team introduce live coverage of day one of Royal Ascot 2013.
What a start to the five-day meeting in store, with three Group One contests to kick-off the best week’s racing in the world.
It begins with the Queen Anne Stakes, won last year by the mighty Frankel and this year featuring the American superstar Animal Kingdom.
For the first time ever, all six races are broadcast live on Channel 4 every day.
The Morning Line: 7.55am-8.55am Channel 4
Day 1 LIVE: 1.40pm-6.00pm Channel 4
Day 1 Highlights: 12.40am-1.10am Channel 4
Clare Balding and Nick Luck present all the pageantry, tradition and top-quality racing from day two of the Royal meeting.
Today’s highlight is the 150th anniversary running of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, plus all the sights and sounds of this fashion spectacular.
The Morning Line: 7.55am-8.55am Channel 4
Day 2 LIVE: 1.40pm-6.00pm Channel 4
Day 2 Highlights: 12.55am-1.25am Channel 4
It’s Gold Cup day at Royal Ascot and Clare Balding and Nick Luck introduce all six races on day three of the Royal meeting.
At 2.00pm the Queen will arrive in the Royal procession, hoping to win the big race for the first time with her own horse, Estimate.
The Morning Line: 7.55am-8.55am Channel 4
Day 3 LIVE: 1.40pm-6.00pm Channel 4
Day 3 Highlights: 1.10am-1.40am Channel 4
All the style and drama of day four at the Royal meeting.
Today’s racing highlight is the fillies’ mile race, the Coronation Stakes – first run in 1840.
There’s also coverage of all the fashion sights that form such a spectacular backdrop to this great sporting event.
The Morning Line: 7.55am-8.55am Channel 4
Day 4 LIVE: 1.40pm-6.00pm Channel 4
Day 4 Highlights: 12.40am-1.10am Channel 4
Clare Balding and Nick Luck host coverage of the final day of the Royal meeting.
Again all six races are live on Channel 4, culminating in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at 5.35; at two miles six furlongs it’s the longest flat race in the calendar.
Plus a last chance to savour the sights and fashions of this great Royal occasion.
| 2.30 | Chesham Stakes (Listed Race) 7f |
| 3.05 | Hardwicke Stakes (Group 2) 1m4f |
| 3.45 | Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Group 1) 6f |
| 4.25 | Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap) 6f |
| 5.00 | Duke of Edinburgh Handicap 1m4f |
| 5.35 | Queen Alexandra Stakes (Conditions Race) 2m5f159y |
The Morning Line: 9.00am-10.00am Channel 4
Day 5 LIVE: 1.40pm-6.00pm Channel 4
Day 5 Highlights: 1.15am-1.40am Channel 4
Live commentary on selected races on BBC Radio 5 live & 5 live Sports Extra
