Forever Young headlines international entries for Royal Ascot 2026

Royal Ascot’s 2026 entry list suddenly looks like a world championship meeting. Forever Young and Joliestar have given the Berkshire festival a star-power jolt, with Japan and Australia pushing major names toward races that could reshape the summer picture at Ascot Racecourse.

The meeting runs Tuesday 16 to Saturday 20 June and will stage 35 races across five days, but the early centerpiece is the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. Forever Young was among 24 entries for the Group 1 on 17 June, a race over 1m1f212y with a winner’s purse of £567,100. If he runs, the Breeders’ Cup Classic and two-time Saudi Cup winner would make his turf debut against Europe’s best middle-distance horses, turning one entry into a genuine global storyline.

His profile alone makes the prospect irresistible. Forever Young has earned nearly £25 million and was ranked third in the latest World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, a résumé that explains why his name changes the temperature of the meeting. Yoshito Yahagi has also entered American Stage for the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes and Shin Emperor for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, while T O Password is another in the frame for the same race. That kind of international commitment signals that Japanese connections are not treating Ascot as a novelty stop, but as a target worthy of their biggest names.

Joliestar gives the sprint side of the meeting its own heavyweight thread. The five-time Group 1 winner is expected to point toward the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, the six-furlong sprint that first ran in 1868 and was renamed in 2023 in memory of Queen Elizabeth II. It is now worth £1 million, and Joliestar’s path to Berkshire is already laid out: she will stay in Sydney until 20 May, move to Melbourne, and fly to the UK on 3 June before arriving at Charlie Hills’ Lambourn yard on 4 June after a five-furlong Flemington trial.

Her case is backed by form and planning. Joliestar won the 2025 Newmarket Handicap at Flemington and the T.J. Smith Stakes at Randwick this April, and Chris Waller said that result confirmed Royal Ascot was firmly on the agenda. Cambridge Stud, which co-owned Hello Youmzain when he won the Jubilee in 2022, is chasing a second success in the race. If Joliestar, Forever Young and the likes of Lazzat, Satono Reve and Lugal all stand their ground, Royal Ascot will open June looking less like a local showcase and more like the sport’s international summit.