Ascot honours late Queen

ROYAL ASCOT has renamed one of its races in honour of Elizabeth II.

The Platinum Jubilee Stakes will be called The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes when it takes place on the final day of the meeting next month.

Sir Francis Brooke, His Majesty’s representative at Ascot, said the King had approved the decision, adding: “This will both honour Her Late Majesty in perpetuity and maintain the connection with the three jubilees celebrated since the inception of the race as the Golden Jubilee Stakes in 2002.

“The late Queen’s close association with Ascot Racecourse was well known throughout the world, but no race at the Royal Meeting previously carried the name of Queen Elizabeth II.”

The Group 1 contest, which will take place on June 24, has been renamed three times this century in commemoration of Elizabeth II’S golden, diamond and platinum jubilees.

Nick Smith, Ascot’s director of racing, told the Racing Post: “The [late] Queen had so much success at Royal Ascot and we thought it was appropriate to specifically rename a race in her honour.

“It’s something we’ve been thinking about for a while. While we also have the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day named after her, she had so many winners at Royal Ascot and barely missed a meeting, apart from the Covid years and when ill health prevented her.

“She was always there and loved it, she was such a major part of the meeting. Alongside the Gold Cup, this was the race she traditionally presented for and it was the logical race to choose.

On old Midsummer’s Day, June 24, the 4.20 race at Royal Ascot, run for £1million, will be named the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes. It does not exactly honour the late Queen, rather the name sheds honour on the racecourse (founded by Queen Anne in 1711), but it recognises a real bond. In her long reign, Elizabeth II only once missed Royal Ascot – in 2022. The nation was right to be worried. Neither the monarchy nor horse racing is strictly democratic – no one elects horses, except by putting their money on them and voting with their feet to go and see them run. Yet, if Britain still has social classes, horses bring them together. The most successful horse in the 155-year history of the race now to bear Queen Elizabeth II’S name was Prince Charlie, winner in 1872, 1873 and 1874. No one had to be a Jacobite to back him.