The five day Royal Ascot Meeting gets underway on Tuesday 16th June with the first race going off at 2.30 pm. There are three Group 1’s on Tuesday, and one Group 1 on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The highlight of the meeting is always the Ascot Gold Cup run on Thursday. For me this is my favourite race of the meeting. Yeats (pictured) has already won this race three times and will be attempting to win it for a record fourth time. He is now an 8 year old and a credit to all at Ballydoyle who have kept him in training and not packed him off to stud. If he is able to win I am sure the roof will come off the Grandstand. The atmosphere that these old favourites create is great for horse racing in general. We all love our National Hunt champions who we see around for a few seasons and the Flat Cup horses give us the same excitement and pleasure.

For all the Ascot news with race times click on Ascot.