Horse Racing Fixtures

British Champions Day

admin November 11, 2025

British Champions Day, sponsored by the Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company (QIPCO), is a one-day meeting staged at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, South East England in October, which marks the end of the British Flat racing season, at least on turf. British Champions Day was established in 2011, by drawing together existing races from late-season fixtures from Ascot and Newmarket – suitably re-titled and boosted in prize money – to create an end-of-season championship meeting.

Nowadays featuring seven races, five of which are contested at the highest, Group 1 level, worth a total of £4.35 million in prize money, British Champions Day is the most valuable raceday staged in Britain. The most valuable race of the day is the Champion Stakes, run over a mile and a quarter, open to horses aged three years and upwards and worth £1.3 in prize money. Since it was transferred to Ascot, the most notable winner of the Champion Stakes, so far, was Frankel – the highest-rated Flat horse of all time – who ended his unbeaten, 14-race career with routine victory at odds of 2/11.

The only race of the day not open to horses aged three years and upwards is the British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes which, as the name suggests, is restricted to juveniles. Then follow the five Group 1 races, the British Champions Long Distance Cup, over two miles, the British Champions Sprint Stakes, over six furlongs, the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, over a mile and a half, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, over a mile, and the aforementioned Champion Stakes. The card closes with the Balmoral Handicap, a prestigious and valuable handicap race, with a safety limit of 20, run over a straight mile and worth £200,000 in total prize money.

Ayr Gold Cup Festival

admin November 11, 2025

Staged on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday in September at Ayr Racecourse in South Ayrshire, southwestern Scotland, the Ayr Gold Cup Festival takes its name from the highlight of the Scottish Flat racing season, the Ayr Gold Cup. Established in 1804, at the long-defunct Belleisle Racecourse, the Ayr Gold Cup has been run in its current guise since 1908 and is, nowadays, a prestigious and valuable ‘Heritage Handicap’, worth just shy of £100,000 to the winner.

Run over six furlongs and open to horses aged three years and upwards, the Ayr Gold Cup has a safety limit of 25, but is always heavily over-subscribed. So popular is it, in fact, that it has spawned a consolation race, the Ayr Silver Cup, for horses ballotted out of the main event and, more recently, a consolation race for the consolation race, the Ayr Bronze Cup.

Aside from the three, fiercely-competive sprint races, highlights of the three-day meeting include the historic Kilkerran Cup, a handicap run over a mile and a quarter and the feature race on day one, billed, unsurprisingly, as ‘Opening Day’. Day two, ‘Ladies Day’, features the Ayr Bronze Cup, plus two Listed level contests, the Harry Rosebery Stakes and the Arran Scottish Fillies’ Stakes; the former is run over five furlongs and open to two-year-olds only, while the latter is run over five-and-a-half furlongs and open to fillies and mares aged three years and upwards.

The Saturday, ‘Ayr Gold Cup Day’, features not only the Ayr Silver Cup and the Ayr Gold Cup, but also a full, supporting card, which includes the Listed Doonside Cup and the Group 3 Ladbrokes Firth Of Clyde Fillies’ Stakes. The former is run over a mile and a quarter and open to horses aged three years and upwards, while the latter – which has the distinction of being the only Pattern race run in Scotland – is run over six furlongs and open to two-year-old fillies only.

Newmarket Guineas Festival

admin November 7, 2025

One of the highlights of the British Flat racing season, the Newmarket Guineas Festival is a three-day meeting, staged over the first weekend in May on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk, East Anglia. As the name suggests, the meeting is headlined by the first two Classics of the season, the 2,000 Guineas on the Saturday and the 1,000 Guineas on the Sunday. Both Classics are run over a mile, but the 2,000 Guineas, which is nowadays worth £525,000 in total prize money, is officially open to three-year-old colts and fillies (although rarely contested by the latter in recent times), while the 1,000 Guineas, which is worth £500,000, is restricted to three-year-old fillies.

Highlights of the first day of the Guineas Festival, known as ‘Guineas Friday’, include the Newmarket Stakes and King Charles II Stakes, both Listed level contests, run over ten and seven furlongs, and open to three-year-old colts and geldings and three-year-olds of both sexes, respectively. The feature race, though, is the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes, run over a mile and a half and open to horses aged four years and upwards.

The first Classic of the season aside, the second day, ‘2,000 Guineas Day’, also features the Group 3 Palace House Stakes, run over five furlongs and open to horses aged three years and upwards, which serves as an appetiser for the main event. Likewise, on the third and final day, ‘1,000 Guineas Day’, the feature race is supplemented by the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes, for three-year-old fillies over a mile and a quarter, and the Group 2 Dahlia Stakes, for fillies and mares aged four years and upwards over nine furlongs. All told, the Newmarket Guineas Festival offers three days of exceptional racing action, with a total of 23 races, seven on the Friday, nine on the Saturday and another seven on the Sunday.

Royal Ascot

admin November 7, 2025

If the Cheltenham Festival is the highlight of the British National Hunt racing season, it is difficult to argue that Royal Ascot is not the summer equivalent for Flat racing fans. Awarded the ‘Royal’ epithet in 1911, during the reign of King George V, and extended to the current five days in 2002, in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Ascot is, nowadays, the most popular and valuable race meeting staged in Britain.

Attracting approximately 300,000 visitors over the five days, Royal Ascot features a total of 35 races, seven on each day – including eight of the 38 Group 1 races staged annually in Britain – and offers £10 million in prize money. Unsuprisingly, the meeting attracts the crème de la crème of horse racing talent not only from Britain, Ireland and France, but from as far afield as the United States, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia.

The oldest race run at Royal Ascot, and the traditional highlight of the week, is the Gold Cup, run over two and a half miles, open to horses aged four years and upwards and currently scheduled as the fourth race on the third day. Nowadays a prestigious Grade 1 contest, worth £650,000 in total prize money, the Gold Cup was first run in 1807, during the reign of King George III. The distinction of being the most valuable race of the week is held, jointly, by the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, run over a mile and a quarter and open to horses aged four years and upwards, and the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, run over six furlongs and likewise open to older horses; both are worth £1 million in total prize money.

Listed and Pattern races aside, the Royal Ascot programme also currently includes 11 fiercely-competitive handicap races. Two of the most notable are the Royal Hunt Cup, run over a mile, and the Wokingham Stakes, run over six furlongs.