Royal Ascot 2026 runs from Tuesday 16 June to Saturday 20 June at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, England.

Five days, 35 races, eight Group 1s and a record £10.65 million in prize money make it the most valuable race meeting in Britain, and this year it carries extra interest for Australian punters because up to five Aussie-trained sprinters are set to make the trip north.

The time difference works in our favour too. Racing starts at 11:30pm AEST each night, so the feature races land before most of the east coast has gone to bed.

Below is the full rundown on the event, with race times converted to Australian time, where to watch, and which of our sprinters are flying the flag.

Royal Ascot 2026 Dates and Daily Schedule

The meeting keeps its traditional five-day shape, Tuesday through Saturday, with seven races on every card.

The Royal Procession arrives at the track at 2pm local time before racing begins at 2:30pm, and each day carries at least one Group 1.

Total prize money sits at £10.65 million for 2026, up from £10.05 million last year, keeping Royal Ascot comfortably ahead of every other British meeting on value.

The royal connection is more than branding.

The course was founded by Queen Anne in 1711, the reigning monarch still leads the daily procession down the straight, and more than 286,000 people came through the gates across the five days in 2025.

It ranks among the biggest horse racing events by attendance in Europe, and for the flat racing world it sits alongside the spring Classics as the week where reputations get made.

Tuesday 16 June: Opening Day

The strongest card of the week on paper, with three Group 1s packed into the opening afternoon.

The Queen Anne Stakes gets things rolling over the straight mile, the King Charles III Stakes brings the fastest sprinters in the world together over five furlongs, and the St James’s Palace Stakes showcases the best three-year-old milers from the Classic generation.

The King Charles III is the race Australian punters circle first, since it’s the one our sprinters have made a habit of pinching.

Run as the King’s Stand Stakes until 2023, it was renamed King Charles III Stakes in 2023 to mark the King's 75th birthday, and the new name hasn’t changed its character one bit. Five furlongs, flat out, no hiding.

Wednesday 17 June

A quieter card by Royal Ascot standards, though it holds the richest race of the week.

The Prince of Wales’s Stakes is worth £1 million and regularly draws the best middle-distance horse in Europe.

The Royal Hunt Cup, a cavalry charge of a handicap down the straight mile, is the punting puzzle of the day and a nightmare to solve, so treat it with respect.

Thursday 18 June: Ladies Day

Gold Cup day, the heart of the meeting. Royal Ascot’s signature race has been run since 1807 and tests stayers over two and a half miles, which is about as far removed from a Flemington sprint as flat racing gets.

It jumps at 1:15am AEST on Friday morning, so plan the Thursday night session accordingly.

Ladies Day also brings the biggest crowds and the full fashion circus that fills the news bulletins back home.

Friday 19 June

Two Group 1s headline. The Commonwealth Cup is the six-furlong sprint reserved for three-year-olds, while the Coronation Stakes does for the Classic generation’s fillies what the St James’s Palace does for the colts.

The Albany Stakes earlier on the card offers a first proper look at the juvenile fillies who’ll contest next season’s Classics.

Saturday 20 June

The finale pairs the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, the six-furlong Group 1 that Black Caviar famously won in 2012, with the Wokingham, one of the most competitive sprint handicaps on the British calendar.

A capacity field flying down the straight in the early hours of Sunday morning AEST is a proper way to close out the week.

What Time is Royal Ascot in Australia?

Ascot runs on British Summer Time, which sits nine hours behind AEST in June. That puts the Royal Procession at 11pm AEST, the first race at 11:30pm, and the seventh and final race a little after 3am.

Each day of racing starts on one Australian calendar date and finishes on the next, so a Tuesday card in England is really a Tuesday night into Wednesday morning watch here.

The Group 1s mostly sit early or mid-card, which keeps them at a civilised hour.

The Queen Anne opens Tuesday’s card at 11:30pm AEST, the King Charles III Stakes goes at 12:40am, and the Gold Cup runs at 1:15am Friday morning.

Perth gets a friendlier deal again, with everything two hours earlier on AWST, meaning a 9:30pm first race.

One practical note for anyone placing future bets or setting reminders: Australian bookmakers list the races under the local Australian date, so the Tuesday 16 June card in England appears as racing into Wednesday 17 June here.

Double check the date attached to any market before locking anything in, because backing the wrong day’s race is an old trap with international meetings.

How to Watch Royal Ascot 2026 in Australia

For anyone wondering how to stream horse racing from Royal Ascot, Sky Racing holds the Australian broadcast, with its channels available through Foxtel and streaming on Kayo Sports.

Coverage runs through the evening and into the early hours across all five nights of the meeting.

Most major Australian bookmaker apps will also stream the races live to account holders, which covers anyone following the meeting from a phone rather than the couch.

The Australian Angle at Royal Ascot 2026

This is shaping as the biggest Australian raid on Royal Ascot in years.

As many as five Aussie-trained sprinters could line up across the week:

• Asfoora (Henry Dwyer): won the 2024 King Charles III Stakes, then stayed in England over the northern winter to prepare for a third Royal Ascot campaign after adding the Nunthorpe at York and the Prix de l’Abbaye in France to her record
• Joliestar (Chris Waller): five-time Group 1 winner who heads early markets for both the Jubilee Stakes and the King Charles III
• Overpass (Bjorn Baker): winner of more than $12 million in prize money, aimed squarely at the King Charles III on opening day
• Generosity (Chris Waller): pencilled in for the King Charles III, with her autumn form to settle the final call
• Lady Of Camelot: rounds out the potential raiding party across the sprint features

The record justifies the airfares.

Choisir started it all in 2003 when he won both five and six furlong features in the same week, and Takeover Target (2006), Miss Andretti (2007), Scenic Blast (2009), Nature Strip (2022) and Asfoora (2024) have all since won the five-furlong feature now run as the King Charles III Stakes, cementing their places among the famous Australian racehorses to have conquered Royal Ascot.

Black Caviar's 2012 Diamond Jubilee Stakes win remains the most famous of the lot, a photo finish that had half of Australia awake past midnight.

The pattern is no accident. Australian sprinters are bred and trained for raw speed over short trips, and Ascot’s stiff five furlongs rewards exactly that.

When a genuine Group 1 Aussie sprinter makes the trip in form, the British market takes notice, and the locals have learned the hard way not to dismiss them.

Asfoora’s preparation deserves a special mention.

After her unplaced run at the 2025 meeting, Dwyer kept her in Europe and she went on to win the Nunthorpe and the Abbaye, two of the biggest sprints on the continent.

A mare with that European form, fully acclimatised and trained on the spot for a third tilt at the meeting, arrives in a very different spot to the typical raider who steps off a plane three weeks out.