Ascot Gavotte

The recent opening day for Royal Ascot was indeed a smashing, positively dashing spectacle. Diana Khoo reports from the great centrepiece of the British social calendar at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, England.

My first encounter with Ascot was of the celluloid variety, watching the hilarious and totally memorable scene in the movie My Fair Lady, where the luminous Audrey Hepburn, as flower girl and society lady-in-training Eliza Doolittle, forgets the upper class accent which she has been taught by phonetics professor Henry Higgins and lapses back into Lisson Grove lingo, yelling out ‘Dover, move your bloomin’ arse’ to the shock and horror of the British gentry present.

My second Ascot experience, however, was very much in the physical, having attended Royal Ascot, which took place recently from 14th to 18th June. One of the most prestigious race meetings in the world, the racecourse also celebrated its 300th anniversary this year, after its inception in 1711, which was inspired by none other than Anne Stuart.

Popular legend has it that the Queen of England had been out riding near Windsor Castle and had come to a piece of heathland which she proclaimed ideal for “horses to gallop at full stretch”.

Today, the link between Ascot and the British Royal Family remains strong as ever and it’s certainly saying something when the official programme cover bears the Royal Cypher of HM Queen Elizabeth II, surmounted by the Crown of St Edward, while the first page of the official programme bears Windsor Castle’s royal coat of arms and has a welcome address written by HM the Queen herself.

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