Will the millennials take to top hats and tails?

Royal Ascot, which started yesterday, is not the same without its two most charismatic and iconic figures of many decades - Queen Elizabeth II and Frankie Dettori.

- Mike Moon

The racing-mad late monarch and the exuberant jockey couldn't go on forever lighting up the world's most glamorous race meeting, of course.

But, this week, those who throng to the racecourse in southern England and watch the action on television around the world, will feel some magic is missing.

The quality of the racing will be as high as ever; the prize money is at record levels and everyone will still be amusingly dressed to the nines in archaic garb.

Yet old-timers will hanker for Her Highness and for Frankie's victory leap from the saddle, à la the day of his "magnificent seven" clean sweep of the card in 1996.

This mood of nostalgia mingled with melancholy might have informed an article in The Guardian newspaper this week, suggesting horse racing might be on a downward trajectory.