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The Queen Anne Stakes

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History

The Queen Anne Stakes opens Royal Ascot, the first race of the meeting commemorating the monarch who established horse racing at Ascot more than 300 years ago.

As the curtain raiser to Flat racing’s greatest festival, it’s a Group 1, one mile race for four-year-olds and older horses that has always attracted class acts. It certainly kept attracting legendary jockey Sir Gordon Richards, who was 21 when he won his first Queen Anne and 48 when he claimed his last.

His record total of six victories has since been matched by Frankie Dettori, who also keeps coming back for more, winning his first at 19 years of age and his last – to date – in 2007, at 36.

The Queen Anne Stakes has also attracted many top-quality horses. The 2012 winner Frankel confirmed his status as the world’s greatest racehorse with another scintillating display to win by 11 lengths.

Current leading jockey: Frankie Dettori, 6 wins (1990, 1997-8, 2003-4, 2007)
Current leading trainer: Saeed bin Suroor, 7 wins (1996-7-8-9, 2003-4, 2007)

Previous winners

Year Horse Jockey Trainer Owner Prize money

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Circus Maximus digs deep to strike for O'Brien and Moore

Circus Maximus dug deep to land the 2020 Queen Anne Stakes and record a second Group 1 success at Royal Ascot.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained four-year-old had won the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2019.

The son of Galileo, 4/1 favourite, had to battle hard in the final furlong under Ryan Moore, coming out on top by head from Terebellum (5/1) after a sustained duel inside the final furlong. The pair drew clear, with Marie’s Diamond three lengths away in third.

 

Aidan O’Brien was recording his 71st Royal Ascot success and said: “We were delighted with that performance. Circus Maximus is very tough, he travels with a lot of speed, then quickens and then toughs it out. It was unbelievable, really. Ryan gave him an unbelievable ride and we are delighted.

“I think he has probably been a bit underestimated. He is a very solid horse and all his best form has been over a mile and that makes him all the more valuable and interesting. He travels very strongly and then loves getting eyeballed. He is a very good horse.

“I think a mile is his trip. The problem is he is lazy and that is why he wears blinkers. It is only when the tempo is really high that he actually races so I think a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half trips don’t allow him to focus. So, I would imagine he would stay at a mile.

“Like a fighter, if you don’t get his blood up, he doesn’t really bother. The pace of the mile races allows him to get his blood up.”

Moore said: “He is a very straightforward horse. He won the St James’s Palace here last year and won the Moulin at Longchamp. He has been a really good horse and this is his third Group 1. They had their chance to come and beat him, but he battled away and fought all the way.”

John Gosden, trainer of runner-up Terebellum, said: “She ran a great race. They didn’t go any pace which probably played against her as she gets a mile and a quarter. She hit the front and the other one just came back on the run to the line under a rousing ride.”

 

Results

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The Course

British horseracing can lay claim to plenty of blue-blooded connections, but none rival those of Ascot. The Berkshire racecourse’s roots go back 300 years to Queen Anne, who recognised the potential of a stretch of heath land while out riding just a few miles from Windsor Castle.

  • Course plan Ascot Champions Day Course Plan#
  • Course Intro

The royal link has endured ever since. Today, Queen Elizabeth II and members of the Royal Family attend the world-famous ‘Royal Ascot’ meeting each year, arriving in a horse drawn carriage. Royal Ascot, meanwhile, has earned iconic status as a centrepiece of the social calendar, when the world’s best thoroughbreds face fierce competition from the world’s most extravagant fashion designs.

Ascot, which underwent a £200 million redevelopment between 2004-6, also hosts the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes sponsored by QIPCO in July, the most prestigious open-age Flat race staged in Britain.

It will also host the inaugural QIPCO British Champions Day in October which will be the richest raceday ever staged in Britain with over £4.2m in prize money and the climax to the QIPCO British Champions Series.  Including the five category finales on QIPCO British Champions Day, Ascot stages no less than 13 of the 35 QIPCO British Champions Series races.

What sort of horses like Ascot? Horses that like right-handed courses. And what sort of people? People who like champagne and scones, apparently. During the five-day Royal Ascot meeting in 2010, 60,000 bottles of champagne and 40,000 scones were consumed. Lobsters, meanwhile, don’t like Royal Ascot – 1,500 of them were eaten over that same period.

Getting there

Ascot
Berkshire
SL5 7JX

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