The many delights of Royal Ascot

The joys of being a racehorse owner is about seeing your horse compete on the big stage, revelling in victory and riding the roller coaster of emotions that come with the experience. Sounds like a supremely fun thing to do should you have the penchant, to buy a thoroughbred racehorse.

But what about the lesser mortals like us, who also find flat racing irresistible.

Where do we get our kicks from?

I could suggest many options, but perhaps one that tops them all is Royal Ascot.

There is something so special about the five days of racing that are held each June at the idyllic racecourse that nestles in the beautiful wooded countryside next to Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England, that is hard to describe.

Without doubt, Royal Ascot provides the ultimate race goer experience with its unique and unparalleled mix of the hot racing action, high fashion and consummate luxury. Add to that the pomp and pageantry highlighted by the Royal Procession that precedes the racing each day, and you couldn’t ask for anything more.

As a race goer who can be completed engaged, and consumed but the drama that unfolds with each victory, each defeat, each historic moment, and each tribulation.

Getting to Ascot is an experience in itself, albeit you are a visitor or a local. It is a journey that holds it owns peculiar pleasures and certainly escalates the anticipation and excitement. If you happen to be travelling by train, like I have done over the years, you get to experience the joys of the Ascot Express which is a direct train for London Waterloo, which guarantees you a seat on the outbound journey, but sadly does not reciprocate the privilege on the way back home after the last race and after you’ve participated in the traditional singing around the Bandstand.

Once your Ascot Express chugs into Ascot Station you have two options — attempt to rent one of those famous black cabs for a quick drop-off at the entrance to Ascot Racecourse, which will cost you 10, or join the hordes of enthusiastic race goers and ladies in posh frocks, who make the seven-minute trek through Swinley Forest that leads you to the course that was built in 1711.

Should you require some refreshments as you hop off the train you can find something at the Naked Ape coffee stand on the platform or the Jags Bar located just outside the station.

Meanwhile, the sounds of helicopters will tell you that the more privileged travellers are arriving by a much easier route, if less enthralling that the one you undertook on British rail.

Either way, everyone arrives experiencing the same emotions and thrills.

On Tuesday, that scenario will be played out once again as the 2013 Royal Meeting kicks off with a bang with no less than three Group 1 races including the Queen Anne Stakes, King’s Stand Stakes and the St. James’s Palace Stakes.

Let’s party.