Royal Ascot’s inception and its brief history
The rich heritage and history of the Ascot Racecourse reflects in the most famous British race meeting the Royal Ascot, which dates back to 1711, when Queen Anne, a British monarch, decided to run her colts and geldings, and, fillies and mares over at the
age of six, on a plot she bought close to the Windsor Castle.
The races started on 11 August, 1711, and with the purse of 100 Guineas, Her Majesty’s Plate inaugurated the meet, and ever since the Queen Anne Stakes, in memory of the great monarch, is the first race to begin the Royal Ascot meet.
The Royal Ascot races of then and now does not have much in common.
The horses to start with back then were the English Hunters, which were immensely different from the thoroughbreds run on the flat today.
Back then, the race was run at three different heats of four miles long, and the length of heat would be tremendous and you’d have to have a great horse with endless stamina to run those races and win them. It is not known if there were any winners back
then, because there is no record of the winner of the First Plate so it will remain unknown.
The first permanent building was erected back in 1974 by a Windsor Builder called George Slingsby, and many people were involved who laid down the field and created the first paper work for the race to perpetuate the meet every given year.
The first four day meeting took place on 1768, but origin of the Royal meeting is clear, perhaps it was something that evolved into what we have today, rather something that was specifically introduced.
The Royal Ascot started shaping up with the introduction of the Gold Cup, a prestigious event for “stayers” , it’s for horses who specialize in running for longer distances.
The event was established in 1807. In 1813 the Ascot was open to public after a “Act of Enclosure” which guaranteed the public access but ensured that the it will remains as the property of the crown.
Gold Cup is also the oldest Grade 1 race of the Royal Ascot, the races which are held on Ladies Day, spurred the inception of the modern day Royal Ascot Meeting, which proved to be a massive success.
Within the next 50 years, the race which are contested today at the Royal Ascot were established and it consisted of the Queen Anne Stakes , St James’s Palace Stakes .
After the 19th century, Royal Ascot was recognized to be one of the most prestigious and easily the most popular flat racing meeting in Britain.
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