If you want to know about Royal Ascot betting, then we have all that covered right here. From details about the big races at the meeting to the mobile apps you can bet with and promotions available, we’ve got the lowdown on Royal Ascot 2021 for you. Check out the top Royal Ascot betting offers for this year and more.
Royal Ascot 2021 is the top Flat horse racing festival of the year held in the UK with Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family attending. The meeting is on for five consecutive days over the summer. The Royal Ascot 2021 dates are from Tuesday, 15 June to Saturday, 19 June. It all takes place at Ascot Racecourse in the county of Berkshire, easily reachable by road or rail from London. The track is also just five or six miles away from Windsor Castle, one of the main royal residences. A royal procession in a horse-drawn carriage takes place before racing each day.
Royal Ascot offers a wide variety of Flat thoroughbred horse races over a range of different distances. There is at least one Group 1 race, the highest level of competition, every day at the meeting. Some events are restricted by age, just for two-year-olds, three-year-olds or older horses; and others by gender or type for colts, fillies and/or mares. These include some of the most historic horse races in Britain.
The Queen Anne Stakes for older horses over the straight mile traditionally opens Royal Ascot, while the Gold Cup for Flat stayers is the centrepiece of racing on Ladies Day in the middle of the meeting. There are three Group 1 sprint events too; the King’s Stand Stakes over five furlongs, the Commonwealth Cup for three-year-old colts and fillies, and Diamond Jubilee Stakes over six furlongs. You can find even more details about Royal Ascot 2021 day by day below.
There are plenty of Royal Ascot betting offers available if you want to place wagers at the meeting. From free bet deals to extra place Royal Ascot races, you should keep an eye out during the week for promotions bookies provide including each of the following:
It’s more than likely that Royal Ascot free bets are something you can qualify for and use while the meeting is on. These are awarded by bookmakers through a variety of sources. Whether it’s through a weekly Free Bet Club for wagers placed in advance of the meeting, or sign-up offers, keeping track of where you can pick up a Royal Ascot free bet or two is well worth your while. To qualify yourself for these, you may need to place bets on certain races during the festival from certain times.
Scenarios that could you pick up free bets at Royal Ascot include if your horse finishes second (or third or fourth) in a race, sometimes to the SP favourite. Rather than have your losing stake refunded as cash, you may get it back as a bonus. The great thing about Royal Ascot free bets is you don’t have to risk more of your cash balance on your next bet after getting them.
All Royal Ascot races have their final declarations are the 48-hour stage, so from that point on you should either get a run for your money on any horses you back or your stake refunded in full as cash if they don’t. This principle governs online betting on all horse races in the UK and Ireland. Those Royal Ascot non-runner no bet terms allow you to wager with confidence.
If your horse gets declared for a race but doesn’t come under starters orders for any reason, then your money back is assured. Different bookies may instead refer to non-runner no bet (NRNB) as non-runner money back (NRMB) and this works in exactly the same way. This is all about fairness to bettors regarding intended runners. Just don’t expect to find Royal Ascot non-runner no bet applying to any ante post wagers you made where the rules are quite different.
Another of the common Royal Ascot offers is Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG). Also called Best Price Guaranteed (BPG) by some bookmakers, from a set point after final declarations for a race are known, each individual firm will bring this promotion into effect. Some bookies are prepared to go BOG right from when they reform the market, while others wait until certain times on the day of the race, usually between 8am and 10am UK time. Once your bet is covered by BOG, then you are guaranteed to get the starting price (SP) if it is bigger than the odds you took earlier on. Say, for example, that you back horses at 11/4 and 5/1 with £5 staked on each. They are returned at 3/1 and 6/1 respectively. Because you placed the wagers under BOG terms, you stand to make more profit if they win their races. This offer does not apply to ante post bets.
Some Royal Ascot races are large field handicaps with 20 or more runners strung out across the track, so in order to attract business the bookies offer extra places on these events. You may not bet in them if just standard place terms of a quarter outright win odds are available on four places apply to each-way bets. If fifth, sixth and possibly even seventh place pays out, however, that gives you a greater chance of getting a return on any wagers made.
Such Royal Ascot betting offers are less likely to apply to the Group 1 races which attract fewer runners. The incentive is there with the handicaps, though, and with careful study of them, there could well be some each-way value on offer. Extra place races are tougher ones to find the winner in, but you could make small profits by hedging your bets and getting two or three horses placed.
Thanks to the advances in mobile technology and launch of betting apps, it has never been easier to get your Royal Ascot bets on. All the top bookmakers realised quickly that having these platforms for your smartphone and tablet is essential. Below are the best Royal Ascot betting apps available today.
☑️ App rating: 5/5
☑️ Read full Betfred review here >>
There are plenty of Betfred Royal Ascot offers and deals you can get through their mobile app. This bookie goes by the nickname of “the Bonus King” and lives up to that moniker. A dedicated Royal Ascot tab is split into day-by-day markets for those wanting a bet ante post, but it’s the promotions where Betfred really come into their own. Selected extra place races and free bet if second offers run on British and Irish horse racing meetings all the time, but they go the extra mile when Royal Ascot is on. If you go down the brave route of placing combination and system wagers such as Lucky 15s, Lucky 31s and Lucky 63s, then your bets are covered by both the One Winner and All Correct bonuses that gives you extra winnings. Betfred are BOG from 9am on the day of Royal Ascot cards, in line with the rest of all UK and Irish horse racing. Their app makes mobile betting quick and easy with a swift and secure deposits and withdrawals process. Racing Post verdicts are also available on all British and Irish events, plus a number of extra markets and odds to get stuck into.
☑️App rating: 5/5
☑️Read full Paddy Power app review here >>
The Paddy Power Royal Ascot coverage on their mobile betting app is excellent. Once you tap on horse racing, there is a tab dedicated entirely to this event. This contains Paddy Power Royal Ascot offers and promotions like their Power Prices which enhance the odds on double, trebles, accas, forecasts, and place and distance specials. Below those are markets on all the Royal Ascot races, which clearly show place terms. A Paddy Power Ascot offer being available on an event is indicated by a yellow line under the race time. This could be extra places or money back as a free bet deal.
When you tap into individual races, you can read expert verdicts and comments on every horse from industry experts like Timeform and the Racing Post. There is also a list of tipster selections from the British and Irish national press. Paddy Power’s Power Ups act as price boost that enhance the odds available on any horse running at Royal Ascot up to the next recognised price. With all those offers and more available through their app, Paddy Power provides great betting markets and extras. They go BOG from 8am on the day of Royal Ascot races.
Coming soon…
☑️ App rating: 5/5
☑️ Read full Ladbrokes review here >>
Through Ladbrokes Royal Ascot offers you can get ante post betting on all the major race from the meeting on their free-to-download mobile app. This puts those and many other markets during the festival at literally at your fingertips. While the number of bonuses aren’t as many as Paddy Power or Betfred, they do still have extra place races so you can get a bit of extra value out of any each-way betting you do on the Royal Ascot handicaps.
Ladbrokes go BOG a lot earlier than most of their rivals, however, and that is a very attractive aspect of betting through their app, because the guarantee covers bets struck after final declarations at the 48-hour stage. This is the same for all UK and Irish horse racing too. Distance betting is located separately, meanwhile. The Ladbrokes Daily Odds Boost can apply to any sport, including your Royal Ascot horse racing bets. This enhances the odds for one selection, so you can get even more value out of the runner you fancied the most on any given day. Extra place and feature races will be displayed prominently on the Ladbrokes app, which makes mobile betting so straightforward.
Alongside regular Royal Ascot betting using fixed-odds prices offered by bookmakers, you also have the option of pool betting online. All major British and Irish bookies have access to the official Tote in their respective countries. That means wagers like a Royal Ascot placepot are possible. This a special parimutuel type bet involving selections in the first six races from the same meeting. In order to pay out, the horses you include the placepot must finish placed. That is within standard place terms, however, and the wager won’t be covered by extra places. There are seven races per day at Royal Ascot 2021, so the final event on each card won’t be included in any placepot betting available. You can if you wish bet on more than one horse in each of the six races included in a placepot.
Doing this causes your unit stake to increase depending on the number of permutations covered. The great thing about a Royal Ascot placepot is that there can be a return on the wager, called a dividend from the total pool of money gambled, without getting the winner of every race. A combination of winners and placed horses, or just those finishing in a place, yields a return. Among the online bookmakers offering the placepot Royal Ascot betting market are Bet365, Betfair, Betfred, Boylesports, Coral, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill, so all the main players in the industry provide the opportunity if you want to explore it.
Here is more information at Royal Ascot 2021 with a daily breakdown of what’s happening at the meeting.
As noted above, there are three Group 1 events on the opening day to wager on if Royal Ascot 2021 betting interests you. The action kicks off with the Queen Anne for older milers, then the Coventry Stakes for juveniles follows. After that, the King’s Stand for sprinters and St James’s Palace for three-year-old colts over a mile completed the top-class races.
2:30 Queen Anne Stakes (Group 1)
3:05 Coventry Stakes (Group 2)
3:40 King’s Stand Stakes (Group 1)
4:20 St James’s Palace Stakes (Group 1)
5:00 Ascot Stakes (Handicap)
5:35 Wolferton Stakes (Listed)
6:10 Copper Horse Stakes (Handicap)
Royal Ascot betting sites on the second day of the meeting will focus on three Group 2 contests first. They are the Queen Mary for juvenile fillies, the Queen’s Vase for three-year-old St Leger hopefuls and Duke of Cambridge for older fillies and mares. The main event for Royal Ascot betting promotions here will be the Royal Hunt Cup after the feature Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
2:30 Queen Mary Stakes (Group 2)
3:05 Queen’s Vase (Group 2)
3:40 Duke of Cambridge Stakes (Group 2)
4:20 Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Group 1)
5:00 Royal Hunt Cup (Heritage Handicap)
5:35 Windsor Castle Stakes (Listed)
6:10 Kensington Palace Stakes (Handicap)
Through Royal Ascot betting apps and other digital platforms, the middle day of the meeting builds to the Gold Cup. Prior to that are the Norfolk Stakes for juvenile sprinters, the Hampton Court for three-year-old middle-distance horses and the Ribblesdale for fillies of the same age. Lookout for Royal Ascot free bet offers on the three Ladies Day handicaps which follow the feature race.
2:30 Norfolk Stakes (Group 2)
3:05 Hampton Court Stakes (Group 3)
3:40 Ribblesdale Stakes (Group 2)
4:20 Ascot Gold Cup (Group 1)
5:00 Britannia Stakes (Heritage Handicap)
5:35 King George V Stakes (Handicap)
6:10 Buckingham Palace Stakes (Handicap)
With two Group 1s and three handicaps on the penultimate day, there is so much for Royal Ascot betting sites to provide. The card starts with the Albany Stakes for juvenile fillies and then it’s the King Edward VII for three-year-old colts and gelding. Both the Commonwealth Cup and Coronation Stakes are restricted to horses of that age, and colts and fillies and fillies respectively.
2:30 Albany Stakes (Group 3)
3:05 King Edward VII Stakes (Group 2)
3:40 Commonwealth Cup (Group 1)
4:20 Coronation Stakes (Group 1)
5:00 Sandringham Stakes (Handicap)
5:35 Duke of Edinburgh Stakes (Handicap)
6:10 Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes (Handicap)
Royal Ascot 2021 rounds off on its final day with four class 1 events. Starting with the Chesham Stakes for juveniles over seven furlongs, the same distance is used for the Jersey Stakes for three-year-olds. The Hardwicke Stakes is for middle-distance older horses, then the sprinters take to the track for feature Diamond Jubilee. After a couple of handicaps, the meeting ends with the long-distance Queen Alexandra.
2:30 Chesham Stakes (Listed)
3:05 Jersey Stakes (Group 3)
3:40 Hardwicke Stakes (Group 2)
4:20 Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Group 1)
5:00 Wokingham Stakes (Heritage Handicap)
5:35 Golden Gates Stakes (Handicap)
6:10 Queen Alexandra Stakes (Conditions)
There are eight Group 1s among the Royal Ascot 2021 races across the five days. These in chronological order are: Queen Anne Stakes, King’s Stand Stakes, St James’s Palace Stakes, Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Ascot Gold Cup, Commonwealth Cup, Coronation Stakes and Diamond Jubilee Stakes.
Ladies Day at Royal Ascot 2021 is Thursday, 17 June. It is always traditionally on the middle day of the meeting.