Ascot Racecourse

Ascot Racecourse is a famous English racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is the most prestigious racecourse in the United Kingdom, and hosts 9 of the UK's 32 annual Group 1 races. The course is widely associated with the Royal family mostly because it is based about 6 miles away from Windsor Castle. Ascot stages twenty-six days of racing in a year, with eighteen Flat meetings held between May and October. It also stages major jump racing through the winter months. The Royal Meeting, held annually in June, is still widely popular the highlight of which being the Gold Cup. The most prestigious race is the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes run over the course in July.

The racecourse is the setting for a scene in the musical My Fair Lady and the subject for the song "Ascot Gavotte".

The racecourse was used as a location in the James Bond film A View to a Kill made in 1985, when Bond was embarking on his mission to defeat the villainous Max Zorin, whose horses were competing in a race there.

James Bond filming and production crews went back to Ascot Racecourse while filming the twenty third James Bond Film Skyfall, where it stood in for Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Some Doctor Who fans believe that his and River Song's first date was a picnic at Ascot. The more accepted theory is that it was Asgard, the mythical home of the Norse Gods.