With much of the world focused on the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in Russia, fighting for attention this week will be one of the best horse racing festivals — Royal Ascot.
If you’re not a fan of soccer, then what about racing, royalty and high fashion? Think tails and top hats instead of trainers and tank tops.
Some 300,000 well-heeled racegoers will descend on the small town of Ascot in southern England to enjoy one of Britain’s most iconic events on both the sporting and social calendars.
The first Royal Ascot was in 1768 and since its inception a British monarch has attended every year. Queen Elizabeth II, her family and guests will arrive at 2 p.m. each day during the royal procession, in which they’ll be driven in horse-drawn carriages down the race track and into the parade ring.
Joining the Queen and her family in the royal enclosure will be the rich and famous from around the world. Transporting them to the festival in style will be 400 helicopters and a thousand limousines.
To feed everyone during the event, organizers have ordered 11,000 pounds of salmon, 5,000 Angus steaks and 5,300 pounds of beef sirloin, 7,000 rumps of English lamb, 3,500 fresh lobsters and 8,000 Cornish crabs.
And, of course, there will be afternoon tea.
The royal meeting will serve 240,000 hand-crafted cakes, 120,000 buttermilk scones, 80,000 cups of tea, 60,000 finger sandwiches, 7,000 punnets of mixed berries and 2,650 pounds of Cornish clotted cream.
But, let’s not forget about the racing.
The world’s best race horses have come from countries as far away as Australia and the U.S.
The competition will likely be dominated, however, by horses from Ireland’s Coolmore racing empire and the Godolphin operation of Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Hopefully, it’s only the horses that will be battling it out. Royal Ascot has tightened security following recent incidents of fights breaking out among spectators at race courses across the U.K. It’s an image that the British horse-racing authority will want to eradicate.
Royalty, pageantry and top class racing should do the trick.
