Ascot hotels collection

Out riding on a heath near Windsor Castle, Queen Anne noticed ground made for galloping; the place was then called East Cote, and horses have raced there ever since. Around it, the thin sandy soil carries little but heather and Scots pine, with which neighbouring Swinley Forest is almost entirely planted. Red-brick houses keep back behind their rhododendrons. In June, the royal landaus set out from Windsor Great Park and enter the racecourse through a gilded gate, before coming down the long straight.