The 2021 Royal Ascot meeting will see the very welcome return of crowds to proceedings and nothing quite matches the roar from the spectators as the winners flash past the imposing Grandstand and take their very welcome route back to the winner's enclosure. The Royal meeting is a wonderful occasion where all the pomp and circumstance of British society join up to celebrate five days of the finest horseracing in the world and is set up in a grand background of top fashion. I wasn't lucky enough to ride a winner at the meeting but that does nothing to distract my great enthusiam for the occasion and, hopefully, fittingly I start my five favourite Royal Ascot highlights with Her Majesty The Queen's Estimate, who provided her with a 22nd Royal Ascot winner when landing the Gold Cup in 2013. :: Get more content like this at At The Races ROYAL SUCCESS IN THE GOLD CUP (2013) ESTIMATE would be on of my fondest memories of Royal Ascot when winning the Gold Cup in 2013. It was a very thrilling race to watch and Sir Michael Stoute had the filly trained to the minute for her biggest day and provided an unforgettable success for Her Majesty The Queen. The whole place erupted when Estimate was declared the winner and it was fantastic for The Queen and for racing itself. It was a real epic contest with Ryan Moore on Estimate and Johnny Murtagh on Simenon involved in a titanic tussle in the final furlong and Ryan just holding the upper hand to score by a neck. I was riding at Lingfield that evening but I made sure that I got down to the course early to watch the race in the weighing room and for me as a spectator it was just an absolute joy to see Estimate win. She was by Monsun and I was well aware of the stallion as my late father Andrzej had ridden that horse to win two Group 1s and a Group 2 in Germany. Estimate showed the same guts and determination that was a hallmark of her sire's stock and it was a race that left a very lasting memory. CHOISIR'S SPRINT DOUBLE (2003) CHOISIR was a horse I will always remember as I was just 17-year-old at the time and watching Johnny Murtagh win both the 2003 King's Stand Stakes and the Golden Jubilee in the same week was truly remarkable. As I can remember this was the start of the Australian Sprinting revolution when they were bring these real juggernauts of horses over for Royal Ascot and boy was Choisir some physical specimen. I didn't have the pleasure of seeing him in the flesh but watching on television he towered over his rivals and soon as the stalls opened he showed lightning pace to soon have his head in front towards the stands rails. He had bagged the rails for himself with over two furlongs to go and then, with Johnny probably bearing Saturday's race in mind, was able to come home a length clear from Acclamation without being given a hard time. That was some race as Choisir, Acclamation and Oasis Dream occupied the first three places and have all done very well for themselves at Stud since. His trainer Paul Perry had Choisir in rude health for the Golden Jubilee Stakes four day's later and it was a similar outcome. This time he raced in the lead towards the centre of the course for the first half of the race but Johnny eased him across towards the stands rails again in the final two furlongs and he was always holding the very classy Airwave to score by half a length. When you think how far he had travelled across the globe, had to settle into unfamiliar surroundings and managed to win both of Royal Ascot's Group 1 Sprints he had to be some horse and his feat was only matched by Blue Point two years ago. YEATS MAKES IT FOUR (2009) YEATS has to included in anyone's favourite memories of Royal Ascot as his feat in winning the Ascot Gold Cup four times is unsurpassed. We have had the likes of Sagaro and Ardross whose performances stay long etched in your memory but Yeats was the best stayer I would have ever seen in my lifetime and he was absolute class. Before he won his fourth Gold Cup in 2009 he ran in a listed race over a mile and five at Navan and was beaten 32 lengths and you wondered how he could possibly win a fourth Gold Cup. However, Aidan O'Brien once again proved what a genius he is and Yeats was sent off the 6-4 favourite for the race and trotted up by three and a half lengths from Patkai. It was one of those races that gave you goose bumps as he was an absolute warrior of a horse and Johnny Murtagh just got him in full flow and Yeats galloped the opposition into the ground. Remarkably, we could be in the same situation this year with Stradivarius who has already shown what a class act he is with three Gold Cup victories and didn't suggest he was ready to relinquish his title when beating Ocean Wind in the Sagaro Stakes at Ascot in April. Furthermore, he is only seven, a year younger than Yeats was when he achieved the impossible, whose to say that if was to equal that Gold Cup record that he wouldn't be back for a fifth attempt next year. It would undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the meeting if he could put himself into that position. FANTASTIC LIGHT (2001) FANTASTIC LIGHT winning the Prince of Wales's Stakes in 2001 is another day that remains firmly locked in my memory. That was the race of the week with Fantastic Light taking on Kalanisi who had won the Breeders' Cup Turf the previous year. Give The Slip had been employed in the a pacemaking roll and fulfilled that roll to perfection until Frankie Dettori asked Fantastic Light to go about his business. The response was electrifying and he went onto score by a two and a half lengths in a very good time. Frankie had to undergo some traffic problems in the run and had to pull him wide to get his run but once he was in the clear he skated up. I was watching it at home and it was a high-class field that also included the likes of Observatory and Hightori and he was impressively the best horse that day. It was one of those races as a young jockey that you were wishing I hope that could be me one day. Fantastic Light found only Galileo too good for him when returning to Ascot for the King George VI Diamond Stakes the following month but then had another day in the sun when beating that great horse in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September. For enthusiasts like us, there is no more uplifting than seeing class horses like that in action. MY FIRST ROYAL ASCOT RIDE (2009) KEENES DAY running in the Ascot Stakes in June 2009 would be a day I'll never forget as it was my very first ride at Royal Ascot. I was apprentice at the time to Richard Fahey and obviously based in the North and that day I drove down early and walked the track. I was just in awe with the place - you saw the place on television and wishing you would be there one day and I made it. I had a look at the Granstand from Swinley Bottom and I thought this is the place to be. J ohnny Velazquez, Kevin Manning, Richard Hughes and Johnny Murtagh were riding that day, Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori and all the big names in our sport were there and it was a massive day for me in my short-lived career. It was brilliant to be there and I was riding for Mark Johnston and Newsells Park Stud and Keenes Day gave a good account of himself to to finish ninth to Judgethemoment after leading briefly over two out. Freddy Tylicki was talking to Tony Elves of attheraces.com