Ascot racecourse
🐎 Course: Ascot (Royal Ascot Tuesday)
🎫 Ticket: £90 Queen Anne Enclosure
👀 Track View: 3/5
🍔 Food: 5/5
🍺 Guinness: 3/5
⭕️ Parade Ring: 5/5
🏇 Runners & Riders: 5/5
🎉 Atmosphere: 4/5
⭐️ Overall Experience: 5/5
👍🏻 Best For: Full Raceday Experience
Whether you’re planning on going racing for the first time or a regular racegoer and you’re looking for an experience of high quality, then look no further than Royal Ascot! For £90 in the Queen Anne Enclosure you can enjoy the magnificent racecourse facilities on offer, high quality racing on show and a brilliant atmosphere, that gives any racegoers a truly memorable day out.
The Queen Anne enclosure gives a decent view of the track, particularly from the top 5,6 steps where you can see the horses down the home straight right up to the finish line. Having said that, even at that height you’re unable to see the horses head around the whole racecourse so will need to watch large parts of the race on the big screens. Additionally, the beautiful lawn areas trackside are slightly sunken and even the rails trackside are set quite a way back from the track itself. These aspects combined mean that actual views of the horses on the track are limited to when they are going past you, leading to a fair amount of the race being watched on the screen. Overall, the higher up the stand itself the better the racecourse and track view.
When it comes to food at Ascot, you really are spoilt for choice during the Royal Ascot meeting! There’s a variety of top quality, independent food stalls ranging from mac and cheese, fish and chips and burgers to peri peri chicken and banh mi. Additionally, there is a gaucho steakhouse in the enclosure that allows people the opportunity to have a sit down meal at the course. Overall, both options offer fantastic and quality food for the punters that’s fit for the raceday event itself.
Complimenting the plethora of food options is a decent, yet fairly expensive, pint of Guinness. Poured perfectly each time and presented in plastic cups better than the basic level, the Guinness tasted crisp, cold and foamy throughout the day despite the large volume of punters ordering them. At £7.80, the price point is at the top end of the spectrum but can be slightly forgiven considering the quality of the event being arguably the most prestigious of the entire flat season.
This leads us to the magnificent Ascot parade ring. Despite being quite a distance away from the track (like most of the bigger racecourses) the spectacular, multi-levelled parade ring provides a tremendous view of the horses being paraded before the races. It allows spectators the choice of being close to the horses for one race and then a higher vantage point in the next, which is a wonderful option to have. Amazingly, it gives racegoers a different perspective of the horses being jocked up, how they look in their coats and their pre race behaviour. As it’s also the Royal Meeting, you’re provided with the rare opportunity to see the King and Queen up close as before the meeting starts there is a wonderful precession around the parade ring. Whilst not being able to follow the horses from the parade ring to the track itself is a slight negative, you can still see the horses canter down to the start line from the Queen Anne enclosure and this combined with the size, beauty and quality of the Ascot parade ring must mean it still receives top marks!
Regarding the runners and riders, it really doesn’t get much better than this on British soil! The pinnacle of flat racing in Britain, Royal Ascot showcases the best of the Irish and British runners as well as attracting some of the best horses internationally including from France, Australia and the US. With multiple grade 1 races on the card across the festival week that entices the best trainers from around the world, you are spoilt for choice watching the likes of Ryan Moore, Rossa Ryan, Oisin Murphy, William Buick and upcoming prodigy Billy Loughnane riding winners in the Berkshire sun!
With top quality racing on the cards, fantastic food and decent Guinness on offer, the atmosphere at Royal Ascot is outstanding. Looking across the course you’ll see gentleman smartly dressed in tops and tails alongside women in stunning dresses and fascinators, cheering home the best horses in the world and enjoying the summer weather. The noise echoes from the grandstand out across the track and this is followed by loud cheers for the winners coming into the parade ring. In the Queen Anne enclosure, ties and socks are compulsory whilst tops and tails are optional, however looking around it was clear that the latter option was the preferable choice for the meeting. The bandstand provided excellent entertainment throughout the day alongside a giant screen where people could enjoy a drink and watch the racing on there instead of trackside. All together, the combination of a smart dress code, top quality racing, brilliant weather and superb facilities provided a tremendous racecourse atmosphere.
Overall, it’s pretty clear from the review how special Ascot is as a racecourse especially during the Royal Meeting. If you’re looking to experience the best of racecourse atmosphere, the best runners and riders and a gorgeous parade ring then Ascot is certainly the place to go. We can’t recommend this racecourse and meeting highly enough, and should be on everyone racing bucket list.
Parade Ring Viewing at Royal Ascot