Royal Ascot: A First-Timer’s Honest Verdict
A guest post from Dylan — our daughter’s partner, attending Royal Ascot for the first time in 2025.
I should state for the record that I am not a horse person. I have no strong feelings about horses in either direction, which I considered a perfectly reasonable position before attending an event where horses are, nominally, the entire point.
Arrival
Getting to the racecourse was straightforward. Staff were organised and friendly, the initial queues moved quickly, and all around me people were dressed in extraordinary outfits. This was a useful early calibration — when several hundred people are wearing fascinators and morning suits in a car park, you understand quickly that you are not in a normal situation.
The queuing to get in, however, was a different experience. British people are rightly celebrated for orderly queuing. The approach toward the entrance resembled more of a polite scramble. Personal space became a theoretical concept. One woman’s fascinator made contact with my ear. We did not discuss this.
The Royal Procession
Once inside, the first impression is a large open field. It settles into something considerably more atmospheric once you walk further in — the private enclosures on the far side, the grand old stands, the general sense of occasion. Then King Charles’s carriage rolls past in the Royal Procession, close enough that it feels faintly surreal, and the crowd sings the national anthem. Whatever your feelings about horse racing, it is a genuinely British moment. Even a law student can appreciate the theatre.
Food, Drinks and the Bar Queue
Food stalls in the Village Enclosure covered the expected range — fish and chips, burgers, the usual British staples — at prices that were firm but not unreasonable. The bars required more patience than the racing. Queues were long. The pour was modest. The price was not. I will say no more on this point, on the grounds that complaining about expensive drinks at a Royal event is not the hill to die on.
The Racing
The racing, viewed from the Village Enclosure, is best described as atmospheric rather than immersive. The horses appear, travel past at considerable speed, and disappear around the far side of the course. The remainder of each race plays out on the screens — a bit like attending a cinema and being seated slightly behind the screen. The atmosphere carries it regardless. The noise around each race, the collective investment in animals with names like Passing Wind — you don’t need to understand the form book to feel it.
We placed a few bets — £5 each, several times across the day. I selected horses by their names, which is not a recognised betting strategy. It produced no winnings. It did produce a brief but genuine emotional investment in the progress of a horse called Passing Wind, which I had not anticipated.
Between the Races
Between races, a significant portion of the crowd migrated toward a tent where an English band played popular chart music at a volume suggesting the racing was entirely optional. A sizeable group had come to Royal Ascot specifically to drink Pimm’s and dance on chairs and tables in a very hot tent, with no particular interest in what was happening on the track. I respect this approach enormously.
The headline evening act was American country music. Country has become enormously popular in recent years, and Royal Ascot was clearly keeping pace. Whether it sits naturally alongside the Royal Procession, the morning suits, and several centuries of English tradition is a question I leave open. The crowd was split. We were in the uncertain half.
Verdict
Genuinely worth doing once. If I returned, I would either invest in the enclosures with proper seating, or arrive with a folding chair and absolutely no ambitions to go anywhere.
Also in this series: getting ready for Royal Ascot — tickets, dress code and transport — and the day itself, from Olesia’s perspective.
