Excitement, pageantry, horse racing and fashion collide once again for the 2014 running of Royal Ascot and Channel 4 will be screening all 30 races live from Flat racing’s grandest festival.
With 30 high-class races held over the course of five days, including five at the Group 1 level, the Royal Meeting is an unrivalled spectacle of exceptional racing, with an increasingly international profile of runners and riders.
With prize money now averaging £1m per day, the racing at the famous Berkshire course, which was modernised extensively almost a decade ago, is almost always ultra-competitive.
Royal Ascot has been attended by British Monarchs ever since its inception and each day traditionally begins with the Royal procession in which The Queen along with her family and guests parade in front of the Grandstand in their horse-drawn carriages.
Alongside world class racing and the traditional pageantry, Royal Ascot week is also a key date in the social calendar of high-society types.
Hats, from the sublime to the ridiculous, are part of the scene, while designers specifically earmark the week to showcase creations they hope will be given extensive publicity.
Dress regulations are notoriously strict with top hats and tails being de rigueur for men with tickets for the Royal Enclosure.
While plenty of show-stopping outfits are expected the grace the lawns and spectator enclosures, the racing should also provide its fair share of exciting moments.
There are three Group One championship races on the first day alone, with Toronado even-money favourite for the opening race of the meeting, the Queen Anne Stakes, while Hot Streak is the pick for the King’s Stand Stakes, the first British leg of the Global Sprint Challenge.
The St James’s Palace Stakes sees Kingman currently heading the odds in the seven-strong field but Night of Thunder is also attracting plenty of interest.
The highlight of Wednesday’s racing is the Group One Prince of Wales Stakes, where Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Treve will make her first appearance outside France.
She is currently favourite ahead of Breeders’ Cup winner Magician, with Mukhadram,The Fugue, Dank, Elkaayed, Parish Hall and Zambucca making up the eight-strong field.
The 2013 Gold Cup provided Queen Elizabeth II with her proudest moment as a racehorse owner as Ryan Moore guided Estimate to an unforgettable victory.
Estimate is 8/1 to repeat the feat on Thursday afternoon, fourth favourite behind Leading Light, Brown Panther and Tac De Boistron.
Friday’s feature race is the Coronation Stakes where My Titania is currently favourite, while the final day on Saturday sees Slade Power as the early bookies’ choice for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, one of the world’s great international sprints and the second British leg of the Global Sprint Challenge.
For mere mortals, Royal Ascot is a chance to watch and wonder at the elaborate outfits and watch in wonder as the cream of Flat racing’s talent square off against each other.
Follow Royal Ascot 2014 on Channel 4. SOTB’s viewing guide below:
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One of the world’s greatest racing festivals will again receive complete coverage in 2014 as Channel 4 screens all 30 races during the Royal meeting.
More than 30 hours of live coverage across all five days will be complemented by daily editions of Morning Line and nightly highlights shows, matching Channel 4’s commitment to last year’s Royal Ascot, which was the biggest ever devoted by a UK terrestrial broadcaster.
Clare Balding and Nick Luck will lead Channel 4 Racing’s presenting team throughout the week, with its live coverage going on-air each day at 1.40pm.
The broadcaster has signed up three-times champion jockey Frankie Dettori, who will join the Channel 4 team for the duration of the five-day Royal meeting and on a continuing basis across the Flat season.
Dettori, who has ridden 47 winners at Royal Ascot and famously rode all seven winners at Ascot in 1996, will combine his new Channel 4 role with his retained jockey role for Sheikh Joaan al Thani.
Regular on-course reporters Emma Spencer, Mick Fitzgerald and Rishi Persad will help bring viewers closer to the action with exclusive access to the Ascot stables, jockeys’ changing room and stewards’ room, while analysis and expert comment comes from Jim McGrath and Graham Cunningham in the trackside studio.
Principal commentator Simon Holt will be supported by Richard Hoiles across the five-day meeting to deliver unrivalled commentary for 30 races that features seven Group 1 contests.
As always, Tanya Stevenson will be on-hand to relay the betting markets with Brian Gleeson offering an Irish perspective.
Royal Ascot is famed for its fashion and Channel 4 has signed up Gok Wan to join its team to present the broadcaster’s fashion and style coverage from the Royal meeting.
Presenting from a specially created position on Ascot’s ‘Motivator Lawn’, Wan will be joined by special guests across the week including leading milliners and designers such as Philip Treacy, Jane Taylor, Caroline Charles, Suzannah Crabb, Stewart Parvin and Rachel Trevor-Morgan.
Alongside the fashion, there will be a broad range of racing features to complement the live action.
Emma Spencer visits the training operation of Manor House Stables to meet football icon, racehorse owner and breeder Michael Owen.
A two-part interview with jockey James Doyle pours light on his career breakthrough and his fresh partnership with HRH Prince Khalid Abdullah.
Gina Bryce visits a number of trainers from Olly Stevens to Mike De Kock to discuss their Royal Ascot fancies, while Nick Luck travels to Chantilly to visit Madame Criquet Head-Maarek to observe four-year-old Treve in action at her French home.
The team also take a nostalgic look back on the day Her Majesty The Queen’s Estimate won The Gold Cup, with Alastair Down supplying additional commentary on traditional archive features.
Channel 4 will also launch a new feature strand ‘Inside Ascot’, broadcast throughout the week’s coverage and presented by Gina Bryce.
‘Inside Ascot’ will give viewers exclusive access behind the scenes at Ascot and will lift the lid on the work that goes into making the Royal meeting one of the world’s most famous sporting events.
Channel 4’s digital platforms will also provide a comprehensive service across the five-day Royal meeting.
For the first time, @Channel4Racing in partnership with @AscotInsider will utilise a Twitter Mirror for the duration of Royal Ascot.
The team will once again have exclusive on-course access to capture unique images portraying the glamour and sporting status of the prestigious Royal Meeting.
This will be supported by the Channel 4 Racing website, which will have all the latest news, features and build-up, including multi-media live text commentary, interactive polls and daily reviews, as well as complementary activity on Twitter – @Channel4Racing – and Facebook.
Commenting on its coverage plans for Royal Ascot, Ed Havard, Channel 4’s Head of Live Events, said: “Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of our year and we are continuing to invest in this incredible event across the channel and across the business to showcase the spectacle of Ascot for our audiences.
“Frankie Dettori is known to millions both inside and outside the sport of Racing and his record as a jockey speaks for itself.
“We’re delighted that he’s joining Clare and the Channel 4 Racing team, not just for Royal Ascot, but also across the rest of the Flat Season.”
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| DAY 1 – TUESDAY 17th JUNE |
Clare Balding and Nick Luck introduce the pageantry and racing from Ascot, starting today with three fantastic Group One contests.
Today’s highlight could be the St James’ Palace Stakes in which Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Kingman looks for revenge over his Newmarket 2,000 Guineas conqueror Night of Thunder.
C4 Race Card 2:30 Queen Anne Stakes3:05 Coventry Stakes 3:45 King’s Stand Stakes
4:25 St James’s Palace Stakes
5:00 Ascot Stakes
5:35 Windsor Castle Stakes
| DAY 2 – WEDNESDAY 18th JUNE |
The Channel 4 Racing team present day two of Royal Ascot, where as ever the schedule begins with the Royal procession and then it’s the best quality flat racing in the world.
Last year’s superstar filly Treve, winner of the Arc, comes to Britain for the first time looking to show her class in the Group One Prince of Wales’ Stakes.
C4 Race Card 2:30 Jersey Stakes3:05 Queen Mary Stakes 3:45 Prince of Wales’s Stakes
4:25 Duke of Cambridge Stakes
5:00 Royal Hunt Cup
5:35 Sandringham Handicap
| DAY 3 – THURSDAY 19th JUNE |
Clare Balding and Nick Luck are at Royal Ascot for Channel 4’s coverage of Gold Cup day.
Last year, the big race provided one of the greatest stories of all when the Queen’s Estimate swooped late under Ryan Moore to take the win.
Find out at 4.25pm whether she can do it again, against tough competition from Aidan O’Brien’s St Leger winner Leading Light and Brown Panther, owned by footballer Michael Owen.
C4 Race Card 2:30 Norfolk Stakes3:05 Tercentenary Stakes 3:45 Ribblesdale Stakes
4:25 Gold Cup
5:00 Britannia Stakes
5:35 King George V Stakes
| DAY 4 – FRIDAY 20th JUNE |
All the style, fashion, passion and brilliance of Royal Ascot continues on Friday on day four of the Royal meeting.
Today’s feature on the track is the Coronation Stakes for the classic generation of fillies, while Gok Wan continues his assessment of the style and fun to be found off the track.
C4 Race Card 2:30 Albany Stakes3:05 Wolferton Handicap 3:45 King Edward VII Stakes
4:25 Coronation Stakes
5:00 Queen’s Vase
5:35 Buckingham Palace Stakes
| DAY 5 – SATURDAY 21st JUNE |
Clare Balding and Nick Luck present all the action, elegance and drama of the fifth and final day of Royal Ascot.
Today’s highlight is the Diamond Jubilee Stakes: a Group One 6f contest won two years ago by the great Aussie sprinter Black Caviar, and last year by Britain’s sprint champion Lethal Force.
There’s live coverage of all six races plus a look back at the highlights of an amazing week’s sport.
C4 Race Card 2:30 Chesham Stakes3:05 Duke of Edinburgh Stakes 3:45 Hardwicke Stakes
4:25 Diamond Jubilee Stakes
5:00 Wokingham Stakes
5:35 Queen Alexandra Stakes
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Racing UK will also screen all 30 races live for the first time – DETAILS
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