Ascot confident capacity crowds will return despite low Shergar Cup attendance

The crowd at Saturday's Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup was less than half the number that turned up the last time the team event was staged two years ago, but Ascot's director of racing Nick Smith said the track was "genuinely delighted" with the way the day went.

A total of 11,100 people attended the four-team event that was followed by performances by The Mac Twins, Marvin Humes and a combined performance by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Richard Jones, compared to 23,505 in 2019 and 31,097 three years ago.

Explaining the drop, Smith said: "We didn't go on sale until very late. We took the decision not to sell tickets for any of those racedays [outside of Royal Ascot] until we had full clarity that we would be at normal capacity.

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"Because of the pandemic we couldn't get surety of an act. We only announced an arrangement with Sophie Ellis-Bextor in the week of the meeting so everyone had bought tickets for the raceday without knowing if there would be a concert. Usually we would promote the concert from the beginning of the year and that's where the additional crowd comes from."

Ascot: 'we decided to not sell tickets until we knew what format we were going to be able to run'Credit: Harry Trump

The concert itself was a dialled-back affair according to Smith, who added: "It was a smaller stage and set, everything was on a smaller level. Sophie Ellis-Bextor is top class and was absolutely brilliant, but there was no backing group and it was a much less grand affair as we put it together so late, but it was still a brilliant concert."

Royal Ascot and its test event status was another complicating factor, according to Smith.

He said: "We made a conscious decision to focus only on Royal Ascot, as the test event status made that incredibly complex. We weren't sure where we would be for the rest of the summer so we decided to not sell tickets until we knew what format we were going to be able to run – it would have been too complicated to oversell and have a refund situation if we were still at a restricted capacity.

"We were fully aware that by going on sale late our attendances would be radically reduced from normal. That's something we intentionally wanted to put in place this year so anyone attending knew that while there aren't social distancing restrictions, they wouldn't be facing the same level of crowds as they would on a normal, feature Ascot Saturday."

Ascot's smaller crowds have been noticeable, especially when compared to tracks like York and Glorious Goodwood selling to pre-pandemic levels, but Smith added: "We're actually genuinely delighted we were able to sell 15,000 tickets for the King George and 11,000 for the Shergar Cup. In context those are great figures and we will build back. Both meetings will be around 25,000-plus next year and we're expecting 20,000 plus for Champions Day."

British Champions Day, on October 16, would usually sell around 27,500 tickets and Smith added: "We might very well be there. I'd be confident we'll sell 20,000 plus and it may very well be 25,000 plus."

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