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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)

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Accidental Agent books his place in history books

Trainer Eve Johnson Houghton is tears as colt wins Queen Anne Stakes.

Eve Johnson Houghton wept tears of joy after Accidental Agent was a surprise 33-1 winner of the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The trainer, securing her first , Group One success admitted she had been hoping for a place at best. Instead, Accidental Agent pounced in the closing stages under Charles Bishop to edge out Lord Glitters and the luckless Lightning Spear.

The market leaders, Rhododendron and Benbatl, disappointed.

She said: “I thought I was tilting at windmills and I dreamt about being third. I thought ‘my god, I’m going to be placed’ – there was an awful lot of screaming going on.

“I just can’t believe it. I felt sorry for those around us during the race. They must be deaf now! You might have to man the lifeboats as there will be floods of tears.

“She was bred by my mum. My mum is the little woman in a flood of tears. What a legend she is. I am so proud of her and I had a little bit on at 50-1 to pay for the party.

Gaie Johnson Houghton, the owner-breeder, said: “It’s what dreams are made of.”

Bishop was equally jubilant, saying: “In the final furlong I thought I’d be third, then once he got into top gear he just motored and was going away at the line.”

David O’Meara was thrilled with the half-length second, Lord Glitters. He said: “We are delighted with that and obviously he has got a huge engine in him. He might have preferred a stronger gallop, but many other horses in the race might have been the same.

“He does really like it here. He has had three visits and has been second, first and second.”

Lightning Spear was finishing placed in a Group 1 race for a sixth time but has still yet to win one.

“He seems to struggle up the hill here,” trainer David Simcock said. “He has done it a couple of times in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and in this two years ago. He has not sustained his run. He hit the front a long way from home.

“I’m very proud of him at his age and he has run well. The other two horses have come from well off the pace. He will go to the Sussex and I would very much think he will go to the Foret as well.”

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.

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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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