Cover Feature

For those not involved behind the scenes at Ascot, the royal meeting is not just about fashion and socialising, royalty and millinery, punting and posing. Guess what, for our racecourse teams an Ascot raceday is just another day at the office, even if this particular ‘office’ in leafy Berkshire is a little on the grand side! Mikaelle Lebreton was up with the larks on Friday 20th June, Coronation Stakes day, to catch the early morning activity at the racecourse stables.

The horses need to be groomed, readied for morning exercise, ridden to the track for a spin on the hallowed turf, brought home and readied for a relaxing start to their big day. Naturally, their wants and needs come before those of the the human staff accompanying them! As you can see, Deirdre was on hand to ride morning exercise, and after leaving the hotel with Mikaelle at 6.15am, being on the back of her horse by 6.45, ridden on the track and interviewed on the way back to the stables by Dereck Tompson (reporting for the morning preview), washed her horse down and walked it to dry... and all that by 7.45am!

Mikaelle’s pictures also go to show that while results at this year’s Festival may have been disappointing, this was certainly not down to any lack of attention to detail or fault of preparation. Over the years our Ascot team have got every aspect of the care of the horses down to a T!