The Getting-Out Stakes: Illinois Closes The Curtain On Royal Ascot Week
Every Royal Ascot week ends the same way: the crowds thin, the bands pack up, and one race remains before the famous five days are done. They call the Queen Alexandra Stakes the “getting-out stakes” for a reason — it’s the last race on the card, the longest flat race run under rules in Britain at two miles, five furlongs and 143 yards, and traditionally the signal that it’s time to beat the traffic home. On Saturday, it produced a finish worth staying for.
Illinois, trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore, got there in the end, holding off French Master and Mr Hollywood in a finish tight enough to keep the remaining stands on their feet. It wasn’t the form of a horse many had pencilled in as a banker — a recent figure line of solid placed efforts rather than outright wins — but over this unique test of stamina and patience, that’s often exactly the type who comes good. Distance races like the Queen Alexandra reward horses who settle, relax, and find another gear in the closing furlongs, and Illinois did precisely that.
The race itself carries a pedigree most sprints can only dream of. Run continuously since 1834 and named for Alexandra of Denmark, it has been won by some of the toughest stayers in the book — none tougher than Brown Jack, who claimed it six years running between 1929 and 1934, a record that still stands as one of the most remarkable feats in the sport’s history. Illinois won’t match that, but he’s now on a roll of honour stretching back almost two centuries.
Royal Ascot wasn’t the only show in town on Saturday. Up at Ayr, Square Necker put his hand up in the Unite Natalie Egan Celebration Handicap, while Newmarket, Doncaster, Nottingham and Redcar all kept their cards ticking over with the kind of competitive, close-run handicaps that make a summer Saturday in Britain feel busy from lunchtime to teatime. But it was that long, lonely two-and-three-quarter-mile slog around Ascot’s round course that will be remembered as the meeting’s last word.
If you’re following today’s UK card, the full racecard and form guide is at cfox.co.za/predictions-uk.
