Royal Ascot betting: five days of flat racing and how the terms work

Royal Ascot in a few facts

Royal Ascot is the five-day flat racing meeting at Ascot in June. It opens on a Tuesday and runs to the Saturday, with several Group 1 races across the week, the top level of flat racing. Tuesday has the Queen Anne Stakes and the St James’s Palace Stakes. Thursday is Ladies Day and Gold Cup Day, and the Gold Cup, run over two and a half miles, is a long-distance test of stamina. Saturday closes the meeting.

The races are run on the turf at Ascot, with sprint races on the straight course. The meeting draws horses from Britain, Ireland and around the world, so some runners have little or no form in Britain. The programme, times and the number of Group 1 races can change from year to year, and Ascot’s own schedule is the place to check them.

How flat racing differs from the Festival

Flat racing is run without fences, and the horses at Royal Ascot range from sprinters over five and six furlongs to stayers over two and a half miles. The distance divides the horses far more clearly than in jumps racing, because a sprinter and a stayer rarely cross over. Many races are for horses of a particular age: two-year-olds in the juvenile races and three-year-olds in the classic-type races, such as the St James’s Palace Stakes.

Juveniles often run with very little form, so prices are set on a trainer’s record and a horse’s breeding as much as on its results. International runners are priced on form from another country that bettors cannot easily compare. In both cases the market can be less certain, and a price tells you what the market thinks, not what will happen.

The straight course and the draw

In a big sprint on the straight course, the stalls position, called the draw, can help or hurt, and form students look at which side of the track the winners come from on the day. The ground in June can change from one day to the next, and the going report on the morning of each day is the place to look. Neither the draw nor the going decides a race, and both are already in the price.

Reading a flat race card

A flat racecard lists each runner with its draw, age, weight and recent form figures, and the distance and class of the race. Age matters because horses mature at different speeds, and many Royal Ascot races are restricted by age. Weight matters most in handicaps, where it is set by the handicapper, and in other races it follows the conditions of the race. Form figures give the finishing positions of recent runs, with the latest on the right, and a zero means a finish outside the top nine.

Read the form with the distance in mind. A horse that has won over six furlongs and now runs over a mile is asked a different question. Read it with the ground in mind too, since a horse that has run well on soft ground may be a different price on firm. None of this predicts the race, and the market has seen it all, so use it to understand why a price is what it is.

Betting on the Gold Cup

The Gold Cup is a stamina race, and a horse that has not run over two and a half miles has not been tested over the distance. The field is usually smaller than in the big handicaps, and the leading horses are at short prices, so each way at a price of 3/1 or shorter returns little on the place part. Bettors who like the race often take a win bet at an early price and check whether Best Odds Guaranteed covers it. The race has no special rules: the bet types and the terms are the same as on any other day, and only the prices are different. That also means the same checks apply as on any other day: the place terms, the start time of any guarantee and the withdrawal rules.

Forecasts, tricasts and the big fields

In a big handicap a forecast or a tricast, which asks you to name the first two or three in order, is hard to land and priced to match. These bets suit a bettor who has a strong view on how a race will be run. They are not a way of covering a race: a forecast of two horses that finish first and third pays nothing. Our types of bets guide explains forecasts and the combination versions of them, and what each costs.

Offers during the meeting

Bookmakers promote the meeting heavily with sign-up offers, extra places and boosted prices. We do not print offer figures, because they change and come with conditions on the qualifying bet, the minimum odds and the time limit. Each row of our cards links to the operator’s full terms, and the terms on the day are the ones that apply. A promotion does not change a horse’s chance, and an offer with a long list of exclusions can be worth much less than its headline.

The big handicaps

Royal Ascot also has handicaps with big fields, where each horse carries a weight from the official handicapper. The fields are large and the prices wide, which makes each way the usual way to bet. As at other meetings, bookmakers set the place terms for each race, and some advertise extra places on the big handicaps. Check the line on the bet slip for the fraction and the number of places.

The table shows a £10 each way bet at 7/2 with a quarter of the odds for the place. A winner returns £63.75 on the £20 staked. A horse that only places returns £18.75, a loss of £1.25, because at 7/2 the place price is not enough to cover both stakes. Each way suits longer prices, and our each way guide explains why, with the each way calculator for your own price.

Early prices and Best Odds Guaranteed

Bookmakers publish prices for each day’s races in the days before the meeting and on the morning of the race. Prices on the same horse can move between the morning and the off. Best Odds Guaranteed pays a winning bet at the starting price if that is bigger than the price you took, from the time the bookmaker states on the day.

The guarantee only ever raises the price you are paid at. A horse taken at 5/1 that starts at 8/1 returns £90 on a £10 win bet with the guarantee and £60 without it, and a horse that starts at 3/1 returns £60 either way. Bookmakers differ on the start time, the cap and the bet types covered, and our Best Odds Guaranteed guide sets them out for the ten on our card.

Ante-post and the Gold Cup

The Gold Cup and the other big races have ante-post markets for months before the meeting. As on any ante-post bet, the stake is usually lost if the horse does not run, and Best Odds Guaranteed does not usually cover it. Long-distance races also have a smaller number of runners, so the prices on the leading horses can be short.

Non-runners and Rule 4

Horses are withdrawn from Royal Ascot races in the days before the meeting, and a Rule 4 deduction can apply to a fixed-price bet when a horse is withdrawn after the final declarations. The deduction depends on the price of the withdrawn horse, so a well-fancied horse taken out of a small Group 1 field costs more than an outsider taken out of a big handicap. See our Rule 4 guide and calculator.

Betting across five days

A meeting of this length rewards planning more than speed. Write down the bets you want before the first race of the first day, with the stake and the bet type for each, and check the total against the budget you set. During the week, a bet that you did not plan is the one most likely to be a mistake. Five days of top-class racing is a long meeting, and a bettor can easily stake more than planned. Set a budget for each day before the first race and a total for the week. An accumulator or a full-cover bet that joins races across the days multiplies both the return and the chance that one leg lets the bet down, and our bet calculator shows the cost of any of them before you place it. Cash-out is offered on selected bets and is rarely the full value of the bet.

Common mistakes at Royal Ascot

The first is betting each way on a short-priced favourite, where a place rarely covers the stake. The second is backing a horse with no form in Britain as if its price reflected a record you could read. The third is ignoring the draw and the going in a big sprint. The fourth is taking an early price without the guarantee and watching the horse start at a bigger one. The fifth is staking more on the Gold Cup day because it is Ladies Day: the occasion does not change the price.

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