Even the Queen is powerless in the face of the football juggernaut, it seems. It was confirmed yesterday that Royal Ascot, Her Majesty’s favourite race meeting, will have to play second fiddle to the World Cup in Russia on television next summer.
The pulling power and profile of the tournament is such that at least half of the coverage of the five days of the royal meeting between June 19-23 will be shunted from the main ITV channel on to ITV4 for commercial reasons. That means 15 or more of the 30 races at Flat racing’s premier meeting will be shown on the free-to-air digital platform.
Today’s racecards: iPhone users please go to thetimes.co.uk/sport
The most affected day features the Gold Cup on Thursday, June