 Formal dress is still required in the royal enclosure |
The worlds of top-class Flat racing and fashion will collide when the five-day Royal Ascot meeting begins on Tuesday. Racing has been held at the famous Berkshire course since 1711 and tradition is a hallmark of the meeting.
Top hats and tails remain compulsory in parts of the course while a daily procession of horse-drawn carriages brings the Queen to the course.
More than 300,000 spectators will visit the track over the five days although attendances are set to fall this year.
Ascot have admitted that this is due to fallout from the 20-month �200m redevelopment, which was officially unveiled 12 months ago.
The new grandstand was an impressively modern sight but there was criticism of the viewing facilities and since then, �10m has been spent on ironing out the initial problems.
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This year marks the 200th anniversary of the first running of the Gold Cup, which is the feature race of the meeting.
It promises to be a vintage renewal of the race with last year's winner Yeats facing the challenge of the popular Sergeant Cecil.
The famous two-and-a-half mile race falls on Thursday, which is also Ladies' Day, when the course is awash with vibrant colours and fabrics and stylish and outlandish outfits and hats.
| FIVE DAYS AT ROYAL ASCOT 170,000 bottles of champagne 4 tonnes of beef 10,000 lobsters 100,000 scones 172 tonnes of ice |
The Gold Cup is one of six Group One races to take place over the course of the five-day meeting.
Two of those occur on day one, including the St James' Palace Stakes, which will feature dual Guineas winner Cockney Rebel.
The other top-level race is the Queen Anne Stakes, which sees the return of the Aidan O'Brien-trained George Washington to the racetrack.
The colt won the 2,000 Guineas and the QEII Stakes last season before being retired to stud.
But fertility problems led to a shock announcement earlier this year that he would be resuming his racing career.
O'Brien also saddles Dylan Thomas, the likely favourite for Wednesday's �350,000 Prince of Wales' Stakes, the joint-richest race of the week.
The fillies take centre stage on Friday with the Irish-trained Finisceal Beo going for her third Group One success of the season.
Saturday's finale has an international flavour with some of the world's crack sprinters lining up in the Golden Jubilee Stakes.
Also on the card is the six-furlong Wokingham Stakes, a fiercely competitive cavalry charge of a handicap, which is one of the biggest betting races of the season.
A considerable sum of the money wagered during the week will be on horses ridden by Frankie Dettori.
The popular Italian is synonymous with Ascot after winning all seven races on the card in 1996.
And he has been in sparkling form recently, winning three Classics this month, including the previously elusive Epsom Derby.
Watch full coverage from Ascot on BBC Television and the BBC Sport website (UK users only).
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