The Trip
Seeing the Queen
The Races and the Racecourse
The Dressing Up
The Royal Enclosure - Pretty self-explanatory what this is right, its the fanciest entry and its where the Royals and other members of high society (both from the UK and abroad) spend their time at Ascot (the Sheikh of Dubai, his son the Crown Prince and a large entourage were at Ascot in the enclosure). Naturally, the dress code is pretty stringent - men must wear a Morning Suit (a specific style of suit), with a suit vest, a tie (no bow-ties or cravats allowed), black shoes and a black or grey top hat. For women, as with any dress code its never as explicitly prescribed as it is for men but skirts if worn must at least reach the knee, pant suits are acceptable, a hat must be worn (so no fascinators) and if a dress has straps they must be at least and inch wide. I don't know for sure, but I imagine the Royal Enclosure pretty much includes all the corporate box areas and lounge areas in the main stand.
Grandstand - Again, self-explanatory - you get to enter the grandstand and presumably get a seat. The dress code is less strict, for men suits must be worn and for women they should wear either a fascinator or hat and dress formally for the occasion.
Silver Ring - This is in a nutshell, General Admission with a fancy name - there is no Golden Ring, there is no Bronze Ring. And actually, there is no dress code - you could show up in tshirt and shorts if you wanted to and be allowed in, though of course no-one does. This was the admission tier for our group, and the majority of people going to the Races it seemed.
The Drinking
Later on the bus ride back to London I "won" a can of Fosters (there were prizes for the right answer, in this case what colour was the Queen wearing - someone else had called out what I'd said before me, they said it was another colour altogether but all Kim knew was the winner was someone down the back of the bus. I just said "Yip" and held my hand out, she handed me the can and no one else said a thing) but after wine, a beer like Fosters didn't taste so great. If Fosters ever tastes great in the first place. And last but not least, I have to make mention of finding Deon at the bar later on in the night dancing with three ladies, a jug of margheritas or sangria in hand with 3 straws coming out of it (but using all three straws for himself) and a fascinator in his hair. He'd had quite a lot to drink, but he was having a ball - I wonder how hard his head hurt the next morning though!
The Betting
The betting booths were everywhere - you didn't have to go far to bet, and the lines in general for each one were no more than 3 long if that. A lot of the booths were distinctive too, as they were kind of stands topped by umbrella's. Some of the group were betting strategically and made some early wins before losing it, others were betting on who had the silliest name. For the first or second race, we identified who had the silliest name and one of our group went and placed his bets - when he came back I asked whether he had bet on that horse, and he said no, he'd changed his mind. Guess what? that horse won that particular race. It was not until just before the last race when I placed my only bets of the day, when a friend and I went and found a stall that was offering the best odds for the worst horse, "OFCOURSEWECAN". It was pointed out to me, "It doesn't mean its a bad horse - its got to be good to get this far, and who knows what might happen in the race to the other horses" and at 200-to-1, it seemed worthwhile to place an "each way" bet on - either to come first, or place (£2.50 each way, so £5 total with a potential payout of £500 for a win, or £100 for a place) and while doing that I glanced to see another horse to do similar with - one that had better odds of winning, but not the best so that if it did place, I'd get a not too bad return. I spotted one - the odds were 16-to-1, and it said "ORIENTAL FO" as it couldn't fit the whole name of the horse on. I must have sounded like a clown when placing my bet on that horse as I had no idea what the rest of the name was, so actually had to say the "fo" part as "fo", and I put an £2.50 each way on that too. It decided to bucket down with rain at this point, and we watched this last and final race under umbrella's while being told we need to head back to the bus. Unfortunately "Ofcoursewecan" didn't win or place - but to my surprise, "Oriental Fox" won and I came away with around £21 - I thought that was not bad for having put £10 down.