Ascot organisers happy with Royal opening

Ascot racecourse’s state-of-the-art facilities received the thumbs up from racegoers after the revamped Berkshire venue staged the opening day of the Royal meeting.

The track has undergone extensive redevelopment since September 2004 and after a ‘pre-opening’ fixture last month, the course was ready to greet the crowds after being officially opened by the Queen in a ceremony at around 2pm.

Ascot’s public relations officer Nick Smith said: “It was a day of learning.

“We did as well as possibly could be expected. It was the biggest Tuesday crowd ever at just under 55,000 after we had a very soft opening on May 27 and this was the real test.

“I think we performed extremely well. In a usual year we have lots of problems and we had these again but the maintenance and IT people performed brilliantly.”

Royal Ascot regular Juliet Henry, from Reading, said: “We struggled a bit today because we didn’t know the layout of the place and it seemed very crowded compared to usual, but we got used to it during the day.”

Michael Keenan from Cardiff, paying his third visit to the Royal meeting, was impressed.

He said: “Overall it was very good and when you walk through the gate it definitely has the ‘wow factor’.

“It looked very busy but it was easy enough to move around the place.

“While the atmosphere was slightly muted the viewing and racing were first class.”