Royal Ascot, founded by Queen Anne in 1711, ran from 16 to 20 June 2026, and Scandinavia beat the holder Trawlerman by a head in the Gold Cup.
In 2026 Royal Ascot held the centre of the British summer at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, with five days of racing from Tuesday 16 to Saturday 20 June.
Queen Anne founded Ascot in 1711, having ridden out from Windsor Castle six miles away and judged the common fit for racing, and the first meeting was run there on 11 August that year. Her plans were announced in the London Gazette that July. The first public grandstand went up in 1839 and has been rebuilt five times since. Three centuries made the June meeting the centre of the British social year rather than merely its best racing.
Royal Ascot is organised by enclosure rather than by day, and the enclosures are the fixture. The Windsor Enclosure sets no formal dress code, the Queen Anne Enclosure asks for morning dress or a day dress and a hat, and the Royal Enclosure belongs to its Members and their guests.
On the Thursday the Gold Cup, the two-and-a-half-mile race Ascot was built around, became a duel. Trawlerman, the holder, led from the start under William Buick and was pressed from over a furlong out. Scandinavia, a four-year-old ridden by Ryan Moore, wore him down close home and won by a head. It gave Aidan O’Brien his tenth Gold Cup, more than any other trainer in the race’s history.