The Ascot Festival
Ascot

The Ascot Festival is one of the most prestigious events of the year, showcasing both current and future stars in an array of top-class racing as well as providing entertainment and fun for all the family.

For sheer quality and variety, any racecourse would be hard pressed to top the Ascot Finale. The spectacular programme includes no less than four Group races, headed by the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. The Group 1 race is one of the year’s top mile contests and has been won by greats such as 1999 winner Dubai Millennium.

Clues for next season’s Classics abound in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile and the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes, both leading juvenile contests, while the sprinters clash in the Group 2 Diadem Stakes over six furlongs.

This day has a special place in racing history as the scene of Frankie Dettori’s famous ‘Magnificent Seven’ in 1996, when he rode all seven winners on the card.Festival Sunday is family day, with a more relaxed atmosphere and attractions such as fairground rides, celebrity football and circus performers. The racing is still first-class, headed by the Group 3 Young Vic Theatre Cumberland Lodge Stakes over a mile and a half.

Friday’s action includes one of the richest juvenile races in Britain, the Watership Down Stud Sales Race, which is restricted to two-year-old fillies sold at major sales in the previous year.