Royal Ascot back to normal – if you call that normal

Horses competing at this week’s Royal Ascot race meeting are in for a shock. There will be humans watching the action and yelling at them.

The 12,000 people allowed into Ascot each day of the five-day event will be the largest public assembly on a UK racecourse since Covid arrived and most of the runners are too young to know about all the noise they will make.

Ascot horses are the best in the that country – experienced with plenty of wins under the girth strap. But more than half of them – 270 out of 500 – are either two-year-olds or three-year-olds and have not known a racecourse without Covid restrictions.

The Guardian newspaper reflected: “It promises to be an interesting test of the extent to which horses can sense and respond to a big-race atmosphere, and not just for the younger generations.

“Palace Pier, for instance, the hottest favourite of the week in the opening Queen Anne Stakes on Tuesday, raced in front of about 2,000 spectators on his two starts as a juvenile in 2019, perhaps 1,000 more in the Prix Jacques le Marois last August and none at all on his other five starts.”

For racing fans – watching from around the world – a sizeable crowd buzzing in sunny weather, dolled up to the nines, will be a most welcome sight after more than a year of pandemic misery everywhere.

Things will be almost back to normal – though the republican-tendency Guardian waspishly remarks: “… if putting on a morning suit or a fascinator that passes the ‘substantial’ test, just to watch horses run around a track can ever be classed as normal behaviour.”

In 2020, Royal Ascot was staged before empty grandstands, with sad television cutaways to people at home, dressed in all their finery, offering up tips and sipping Pimms in their backyards instead of on the lawns of the Queen’s own racecourse.

Limited relaxation of attendance rules this week does not in any way imply an easing of the strict dress protocols at Royal Ascot. Ladies must still wear a hat – or a fancier with a “solid base” of at least 10cms or more. Dresses or skirts must be “of modest length”, which means just above the knee or longer, while no bare shoulders are tolerated and dress or blouse straps must be “at least an inch wide”. Bare midriffs are strictly verboten. Shorts? You must be joking.

Black, grey or navy “morning dress” with top hat and black shoes is the rule for gents in the Royal Enclosure. No bow ties or jazzy waistcoats.

It has been said that Royal Ascot is Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite week of the year. The 95-year-old monarch is, of course, a racing nut known to follow the game daily and never happier than in the presence of horses and horse people. She has seldom missed a single day of the occasion down the years – which made 2020 so dismal as she wasn’t allowed in at all.

The British press speculates that she’ll only make the short trip from nearby Windsor Castle on three days of the 2021 meeting – when her own horses are running. The traditional royal coach procession from the castle, down the turf track to the royal box with a gaggle of family members, friends and special guests, won’t be happening.

Among the Queen’s horses competing are King’s Lynn, a four-year-old gelding, and Tactical, a three-year-old colt who gave the Queen her first winner at Royal Ascot since 2016 last year.

So, what do we back?

Tipster Adam Houghton of the esteemed racing journal Timeform highlights five horses with outstanding claims at Royal Ascot:

Palace Pier – Queen Anne Stakes, Tuesday

“There is little doubt Palace Pier is the best horse to have contested the Queen Anne since Frankel, lining up as the winner of seven of his eight starts to date … he simply looks far superior to anything else in this division.”

Battaash – King’s Stand Stakes, Tuesday

“Battaash has won just about every big five-furlong race there is to win in Europe and often more than once … he has an exemplary record when fresh, winning first-time-out in every season of his racing career, and even his revised Timeform rating of 128 leaves his rivals with plenty to find to come up to his level.

Lady Bowthorpe – Duke of Cambridge Stakes, Wednesday

Mohaafeth – Hampton Court Stakes, Thursday

Stradivarius, Gold Cup, Thursday