Royal Ascot Tips 2027: Day-by-Day Preview, Draw Notes and Each-Way Handicaps

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By The Guv'nor · Last updated October 2026

Royal Ascot 2027 runs from Tuesday 15 to Saturday 19 June. Recent cards have had 35 races, seven a day, with eight Group 1s and twelve big handicaps. My Royal Ascot tips start from the numbers: from 2021 to 2026 favourites won 70 of 210 races (33%), and the handicaps are where each-way bets earn their keep.

This Royal Ascot preview for 2027 covers the key races each day, the straight-course draw, the each-way maths and the raiders. It's part of my big races calendar, and I'll refresh it when Ascot publishes the 2027 programme.

Royal Ascot 2027 at a glance: five days, the Group 1s and the big handicaps

Ascot confirms 15 to 19 June 2027. The 2027 programme wasn't out when I checked on 5 October 2026, so the day notes follow the 2026 card; the same 35 races have run every year since 2021, give or take a renamed sprint or a race swapping days. To see how the meeting behaves, I pulled every Royal Ascot result from 2021 to 2026 from Sporting Life's result pages: 210 races, 3,534 runners.

"Favourite won" counts joint and co-favourites, and the prices are industry starting prices, not Betfair SP. Six years is a small sample per race type, so read the gaps, not the decimals. For how that compares with favourites across all racing, see how often favourites win.

One split stands out. In the sprint Group 1s (the King's Stand, now the King Charles III, the Commonwealth Cup and the Jubilee Stakes) the favourite won 4 of 18 runnings; in the other five Group 1s it won 17 of 30. Hindsight on tiny numbers, but worth knowing.

Royal Ascot tips day by day: the races that matter, Tuesday to Saturday

The order below is the 2026 card. Past winners are public facts, not anything to back this year.

Day 1, Tuesday 15 June: Queen Anne, King Charles III and St James's Palace

Three Group 1s on the 2026 card: the Queen Anne over the straight mile (about 1,600 metres), the King Charles III over five furlongs (about 1,000 metres) and the St James's Palace for three-year-olds over the round mile. The Coventry is the first big two-year-old race.

In 2026 the Queen Anne went to Ten Bob Tony at 50/1, with the 9/4 favourite sixth, and the King Charles III had 26 runners; its favourite hasn't won it (or the King's Stand before it) in any of the six years. The St James's Palace went the other way: Bow Echo at 5/6 in a field of six. Two staying handicaps come later on the card, the Ascot Stakes (about two and a half miles) and the Copper Horse (a mile and six), which has had exactly 16 runners in each of the last five years.

Day 2, Wednesday 16 June: Prince of Wales's Stakes and the Royal Hunt Cup

The Prince of Wales's Stakes over a mile and a quarter is the Group 1, with five to ten runners every year from 2021 to 2026; Ombudsman won it in 2025 (7/1) and 2026 (11/10). The betting race is the Royal Hunt Cup, a heritage handicap over the straight mile with 28 to 30 runners every year and winners from 3/1 (My Cloud, 2025) to 28/1 (Rogue Diplomat, 2026). The Kensington Palace fillies' handicap has also been on the straight mile since 2024, and the Queen Mary and Windsor Castle are the two-year-old races.

Day 3, Thursday 17 June: the Gold Cup and the Britannia

Favourites have a good record in the Gold Cup over about two and a half miles: four winners in six runnings (2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026), including Kyprios twice and Scandinavia at 11/8 in 2026. The Britannia is the three-year-olds' Hunt Cup (straight mile, 29 or 30 runners), and with the King George V over a mile and a half and the Buckingham Palace over seven furlongs, Thursday and Friday share the most handicaps, three apiece. The Chesham for two-year-olds ran on the Thursday in 2026, having opened the Saturday card every year from 2021 to 2025.

Day 4, Friday 18 June: Commonwealth Cup and Coronation Stakes

Two Group 1s for three-year-olds: the Commonwealth Cup over six furlongs and the Coronation Stakes for fillies over the round mile. Both favourites won in 2026, Venetian Sun at 11/8 and Precise at 8/13. The handicaps are the Duke of Edinburgh (a mile and a half), the Sandringham for fillies on the straight mile and the Palace of Holyroodhouse over five furlongs, won in 2026 by the American raider Bacio at 3/1 from stall 31. Friday is also the day my free newsletter goes out each week.

Day 5, Saturday 19 June: the Jubilee and the Wokingham

The Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, the six-furlong Group 1, has been a bookies' race: one winning favourite from 2021 to 2026, and winners at 33/1 (Naval Crown, 2022), 80/1 (Khaadem, 2023) and 25/1 (Almeraq, 2026). The Wokingham is the Saturday's big handicap (six furlongs, 21 to 28 runners), and in 2026 the Norfolk for two-year-olds moved to the Saturday opener.

Royal Ascot handicap tips: the draw and the each-way maths

Twelve of the 35 races are handicaps, and 65 of the 72 run from 2021 to 2026 had 16 or more runners. Under the Tattersalls Committee Rules on Betting (Rule 3), unless the bookie clearly shows other terms, a handicap with 16 or more runners pays a quarter the odds for the first four. A handicap with 12 to 15 runners pays a quarter for the first three, and a non-handicap with eight or more runners pays a fifth for the first three. Day-of-race each-way bets settle on actual starters, so one non-runner in a 16-runner Copper Horse takes you from four places to three.

The straight-course draw, 2021 to 2026

Six handicaps a year are run on the straight course (the Royal Hunt Cup, Britannia, Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Palace of Holyroodhouse and Wokingham), plus the Kensington Palace since 2024. I split each field into thirds by stall among the horses that ran and counted where the winners and first four came from. High stalls are the stands' side: in Sporting Life's race comments across the meeting, runners described as racing stands' or near side had a median stall of 19, far-side runners 6.

The thirds had similar numbers of runners (342, 354 and 363), so with no bias you'd expect about 13 winners and 52 top-four finishers each. The high third got 19 and 75, the low third 7 and 31. That's a real lean to the stands' side over six years.

But look at the years: in 2022 the high third won one of six. Big fields often split into two groups, and which group comes out on top can change race to race. In the 2026 Royal Hunt Cup the first two (both 28/1) raced near side from stalls 33 and 23, while the third led the far-side group home. Use the table as a starting point and watch the first straight-course handicap of the week before you trust it. For the draw across the whole Ascot season, round course included, see my Ascot draw bias page and the wider draw bias guide.

Each-way at SP in Royal Ascot handicaps, by price

This next table is one I haven't seen anywhere else. I settled a 1pt each-way bet on every runner in all 72 handicaps at starting price on standard Tattersalls terms. No extra places, early prices or Rule 4 deductions: a plain baseline, and hindsight.

Backing everything loses, which is no surprise with 20-to-30-runner fields and a big bookies' margin. Ignore the 3/1-or-shorter row (only 25 runners). The useful bit: the 18/1 to 33/1 band lost least of the big groups, while 40/1-or-bigger lost more than half its stakes. Of the 288 first-four finishers, 97 were 20/1 or bigger. Outsiders are worth a look; no-hopers aren't, and an extra place makes a real difference at those prices. That's where any Royal Ascot each-way tips should start.

My each-way betting explained guide has the full break-even table for every price. Age is worth a glance too: in the 42 handicaps open to older horses, four-year-olds won 28 from 430 runners, while horses aged five and up won 13 from 509. My well-handicapped horses guide looks at the marks behind the 2026 Royal Ascot handicaps.

Two-year-old races: what the numbers say

Six races a year are for two-year-olds: the Coventry, Queen Mary, Windsor Castle, Norfolk, Albany and Chesham. They're big fields of lightly raced horses, averaging 18.9 runners from 2021 to 2026, and the form is thin by definition.

• Favourites: 10 of 36 won (28%). Of the other 26, 18 finished outside the first three.
• Big prices: 8 of the 36 winners were 20/1 or bigger, including Valiant Force at 150/1 in the 2023 Norfolk and Rashabar at 80/1 in the 2024 Coventry.
• One trainer: Aidan O'Brien won 11 of the 36. In 2025 he won the Coventry, the Queen Mary and the Norfolk, all with the favourite.
• The Irish: Irish-based trainers won 17 of the 36, against 60 of all 210 races at the meeting.

So it's often a well-backed Ballydoyle juvenile or a shock nobody saw coming. Six runnings per race is a small sample and many of these horses have run once or twice, so I treat the market here as information, not gospel.

Overseas and Irish raiders

The Irish share of the meeting has grown. Going by the trainer's base, they won 6 races in 2021, 8 in 2022, 12 in 2023, 10 in 2024, 10 in 2025 and 14 in 2026: 60 of 210 in all. In 2026 Aidan O'Brien trained seven winners and Joseph O'Brien five.

Where they win matters. The Irish won 17 of 36 two-year-old races and 19 of 54 other Group, Listed and conditions races, but only 11 of the 72 handicaps, though three went to Joseph O'Brien in 2026 (the Ascot Stakes, King George V and Sandringham).

Raiders from further afield won 7 of the 210 races, and five of those seven were sprints:

• 2022: Nature Strip (Australia), King's Stand Stakes, 9/4
• 2023: Crimson Advocate (USA), Queen Mary Stakes, 9/1
• 2024: Asfoora (Australia), King Charles III Stakes, 5/1
• 2024: Calandagan (France), King Edward VII Stakes, 11/2
• 2025: Lazzat (France), Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, 9/2
• 2026: Map Of Stars (France), Wolferton Stakes, 13/2
• 2026: Bacio (USA), Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes, 3/1

For the Irish side through the year, see my Irish horse racing tips page.

What Royal Ascot 2026 taught me

Royal Ascot 2026 ran from 16 to 20 June and the ground was Good to Firm for every race. Looking back, with all the hindsight that involves:

• High draws won the straight-course handicaps. Six of the seven went to the high third of the draw, and 17 of the 28 first-four places. 2025 leaned the same way (four winners and 16 of the 28 places). Two years in a row on fast ground is worth noting, but 2022 went the other way on the same going.
• The Group 1s were feast or famine. Five of the eight favourites won, but the other three went to 50/1 (Queen Anne), 25/1 (Jubilee) and 14/1 (King Charles III).
• The Irish had their best year in my sample. 14 winners out of 35, with 12 of them for the two O'Briens.

The lesson is the boring one: one meeting tells you very little, six tell you a bit more. Use the numbers to decide which races are worth a bet and how to bet them, then let the prices do the rest.

How I approach Royal Ascot

Look, I used to be a Quantitative Researcher at a Tier 1 investment bank, and I'm essentially a statistics/maths geek. Royal Ascot gets the same treatment as a wet Tuesday at Wolverhampton: what are the chances, what's the price, and is there a gap between the two?

Splitting the week by race type is the first step. The Group races are where the market is most often right, so if there's a 'Banker' that week, that's where I'd expect it to come from. A banker in my newsletter just means a shorter-priced bet I rate as one of the solid bets of the day, not a certainty. The big handicaps are where I want outsiders, because the system behind my outsiders picks out horses that have won or come close off a higher weight or mark than they're running off today, and a 30-runner handicap gives it plenty to work with.

I'm not chasing a win rate. Anyone can talk about high win rates when they tip odds-on horses all day. I care about profit month to month, and in races like the Royal Hunt Cup or the Wokingham, even when an outsider only places we make more profit than an odds-on shot winning.

Stakes stay the same as any other week: points, where 1pt might be £5 on a £100 bank. Don't go all in on the Gold Cup because it's Royal Ascot and you've got a feeling. If I'm unsure about a race I skip it, and you should too. Some people like to throw everything into a Lucky 15 on a big Royal Ascot day, which is completely fine, and I love a stupid punt now and again myself; my lucky 15 tips page is the place for that.

I bet on every horse I tip, and I own racehorses, so when I've got stable information or a smart-money move worth passing on, members get it. There will be losers at Royal Ascot, plenty of them. Understanding that losers are a thing is the key to being a winner longer term, so trust the process.

My actual Royal Ascot selections go out to Winners Club members each morning of the meeting.

Price

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My promise.

Look, I can't guarantee every tip every day is going to win (anyone that can is a fraudster). But I can promise you that every horse I will tip I am betting on myself and through my data analysis techniques it should be in with a very strong chance of bolting up and winning and over a long enough period you will be profitable.

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Give it a go, what have you got to lose? It's only a tenner a month. Feel free to try out the free version first!

- The Guv'nor

Royal Ascot FAQs

When is Royal Ascot 2027?

Tuesday 15 to Saturday 19 June 2027, according to Ascot Racecourse. The race programme for 2027 hadn't been published as of 5 October 2026.

What are the big races on day 1 of Royal Ascot?

On recent cards the Tuesday has three Group 1s: the Queen Anne Stakes, the King Charles III Stakes and the St James's Palace Stakes. The Coventry Stakes for two-year-olds and the Ascot Stakes handicap are on the same card.

How many places are paid each way at Royal Ascot?

On standard Tattersalls terms, four places at a quarter the odds in handicaps with 16 or more runners, three at a quarter in handicaps of 12 to 15, and three at a fifth in other races with eight or more runners. Some bookies advertise extra places on the big handicaps, so check the terms on your bet slip.

Does the draw matter at Royal Ascot?

In the big straight-course handicaps it has leaned towards high stalls (the stands' side): 19 of 39 winners from 2021 to 2026 came from the high third of the draw. It changes year to year with the pace and the ground, so it's a lean, not a rule.

More in this guide

• Big races 2026/27: the full calendar
• Epsom Derby tips and preview
• Flat season preview: when it starts and what to watch
• Ascot draw bias
• Cheltenham Festival tips and preview
• Grand National tips and each-way places