X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Ascot Racecourse


Linda Lovelace for President

After the 1972 release of Deep Throat, Linda Lovelace enjoyed a brief flurry of celebrity notoriety while dating David Winters of West Side Story fame, which included appearances at the Academy Awards ceremony with Winters and the opening day of the racing season at Ascot Racecourse plus author credit for two best-selling books that played up on her status as a pornographic icon.

Make Mine a Million

After repeating the stunt at Ascot Races, Sid, realising that this is potentially a huge moneymaker, does a deal with an advertising executive and, with Arthur's help, they plug cake mix at the Edinburgh Festival.

Marion Crawford

It carried details of a Trooping the Colour ceremony and the Ascot races, when in fact they had been cancelled that year because of a strike.


Band of the Grenadier Guards

The band also performs at other non-military events such as Henley Regatta, Royal Ascot, the FA Cup Final and international rugby matches and opened the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Banks Hill

She had an outstanding year at age three, winning the Prix de Sandringham at Chantilly Racecourse and England's Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Ascot Racecourse before being sent to Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, There, she gave Juddmonte Farms their first ever Breeders' Cup win with an impressive 5½-length victory in the October 27 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Classic Cliche

A month later, he started favourite for a minor stakes race at Ascot in which he was beaten a short head by Wijara, with the future multiple Group One winner Luso finishing fourth.

Edmundo Searle

He was an ardent turfman and a frequent visitor to Ascot, Epsom and Windsor, becoming a close friend of Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales.

Galahad Threepwood

One particularly embarrassing story concerns Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe and prawns, though we never learn many details of the incident, other than that it took place at Ascot, "the year Martingale won the Gold Cup".

Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe

Sometime in the late 'nineties (the exact year is uncertain), he stole Lord Burper's false teeth and pawned them at a shop on the Edgware Road; he was also involved in a mysterious incident revolving around the shellfish known as prawns, of which little is known, save that it took place at Ascot, "the year Martingale won the Gold Cup".

Ladbroke Estate

The result was the Hippodrome, a bold and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to build a race course to rival Epsom and Ascot.

Placid Ark

Bred at Asprey Stud near Pinjarra by H.B (Pip) Dent, Placid Ark was purchased at the Sunspeed Yearling Sales for $5,000 for a novice eight-person syndicate headed by Hotelier Barry McGrath on the recommendation of Ascot Racecourse trainer Wally Mitchell.


see also

OLBG Mares' Hurdle

Warfield Mares' Hurdle, a Grade 2 race run at Ascot Racecourse in January