Ascot racecourse will host the Royal Ascot this week. Picture: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images
Royal Ascot is not the same without its two most charismatic and iconic figures of many decades – Queen Elizabeth II and Frankie Dettori.
The racing-mad monarch and the exuberant jockey couldn’t go on forever lighting up the world’s most glamorous race meeting, of course. But, this week, the thousands and millions who throng to the racecourse in southern England and watch the action on television around the world will feel some magic is missing.
The quality of the horse racing will be as high as ever, the prize money is at record levels and everyone will still be amusingly dressed to the nines in archaic garb.
Yet old-timers will hanker for Her Highness and for Frankie’s victory leap from the saddle, a la the day of his Magnificent Seven clean sweep of the card in 1996.
This mood of nostalgia mingled with melancholy might have informed an article in The Guardian newspaper this week, suggesting horse racing might be on a downward trajectory. Racing writer Greg Wood points to declining crowd numbers at recent big race meetings, a cost-of-living crisis, likely legislation on affordability checks for punters, and the UK’s general downbeat mood.
But another article in The Guardian, penned by “wealth correspondent” Rupert Neate, strikes a quite different note.
Neate looks at an annual auction staged by the company Goffs on the Monday before Tuesday’s Royal Ascot opening.
“Come to Kensington Gardens on the Monday, buy a racehorse and by the Tuesday you will be in the parade ring at one of the world’s most famous racecourses (Royal Ascot) alongside members of the British royal family and other royal families, with your own racehorse in your colours.”
This is the enticing pitch of Henry Beeby, Goffs CEO, for young, super-rich Tiktokkers and Instagrammers.
Beeby talks about targeting “the fastest-growing group of UHNWIs (ultra-high net worth individuals) – millennials”.
These people don’t remember or care about Frankie or Liz, reckons Beeby. Posh horse racing with its top hat and tails dress code and free-flowing champagne should be a natural fit for a growing number of wealthy young people who like to boast about their privileged lives on social media.
And, of course, social media posts often gather significant followings. Thus, racehorses can acquire significant fan clubs, potentially spanning the globe.
Whether racing should be encouraging this sort of thing is questionable – to traditional racegoers. But money talks and something’s got to be done to maintain and preserve the sport of kings, says Beeby.
He theorises that not only are rich millennials an obvious target because of current ready cash, they are about to become even richer as “the great wealth transfer” flows to the children of an older generation of super-rich people in the UK – who are predicted to pass on £56-trillion (roughly R1.3-quadrillion, seriously) over the next 20 years.
“There’s nothing quite like the thrill of ownership,” Beeby said. “There’s nothing like seeing your horse and your jockey in your colours on the track, and – my word – if it happens to win and you can share that joy with your friends.”
At last year’s pre-Ascot sale, on Perks Field in the normally private grounds of Kensington Palace, Beeby sold 11 horses for a total of £3.8-million (R87.4-million).
Meanwhile, back in South Africa, the 2024 Royal Ascot will still make for compulsive TV viewing – and compelling punting.
For die-hard royalists, King Charles will be there to uphold the traditions of “Mummy”. Last year he ignored his medical advisors to attend all five days of the meeting – and he and Camilla even had a winner with their horse Desert Hero. The royal couple have several runners this week and Ascot has
renamed Tuesday’s Group One sprint the King Charles III Stakes.
Meeting highlights include Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes, which features the clash of Auguste Rodin, 2023 Epsom Derby champ, and prolific Group 1-winning mare Inspiral. The venerable Gold Cup is on Thursday and sees popular 2022 winner Kyprios trying to regain his title.
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