B R Sharan Kumar

  The best of times (for some) at Royal Ascot By Rolf Johnson I t was the best of Royal Ascots, it was the worst of Royal Ascots – how often do we fall back on variations of Charles Dickens`s “It was the best of times it was the worst of times” when stumped for a description of momentous events? But how then do you otherwise characterize this latest Royal meeting (the first was in 1911), with its arresting deeds, momentous results but leavened with a sluice of outsiders, form upsets that defied analysis? Consider the lost legions of Godolphin runners - at best disappointing, at worst catastrophic for Dubai`s multi-million-pound operation – twenty-seven runners, twenty-seven losers. 266,000 thousand in total attended the five days - King Charles III every day in his first Ascot since his recent accession to the throne. The late Queen Elizabeth II only had to wait a couple of weeks after her coronation for the first her of twenty-three Royal meeting winners; King Charles had to be patien