Royal Ascot prize-money bounces back to £6 million after Covid-19 downturn

Ascot officials on Tuesday unveiled plans for a beefed-up royal meeting featuring a 66 per cent increase in prize-money from 2020.

The Qipco-backed King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes – the most prestigious race outside of the royal meeting – will be worth more than double the amount of last summer's contest.

Course bosses had hoped to offer £8 million in prize-money for Royal Ascot last year but the coronavirus pandemic took its toll on finances, meaning Flat racing's most fashionable week of the year was staged for £3.61m.

However, this year's fixture – permanently expanded to seven-race cards rather than six – will be worth £6m.

The meeting will be staged from June 15-19 despite fleeting speculation last month it may be delayed because of lockdown restrictions in England being due to end the following week.

In addition, the prize fund for July's Group 1 King George, which has a rich history and features many legends of the turf on its roll of honour, will rise to £875,000, up from £400,000 in 2020.

Guy Henderson, chief executive officer at Ascot, said: "In 2020 we had hoped to offer record prize-money of more than £8 million at the royal meeting.

"The pandemic made that impossible and we have now spent nearly a year racing behind closed doors with trading income down 80 per cent. This year's prize-money of £6m represents 75 per cent of what we had originally planned for 2020.

"With restricted attendances in 2021 and pandemic insurance cover no longer available, the business will need to absorb a significant loss this year in order to deliver our wish to support the industry with the most prize-money that we can prudently afford.

"While Covid-19 has knocked back our long-term financial trajectory by several years, our aim is to make the largest steps we can towards getting prize-money levels back on track as soon as possible."

The mighty Enable winning last summer's King GeorgeCredit: Edward Whitaker

The famed royal meeting was expanded last year to provide extra opportunities because of lockdown in an initiative which became permanent in January.

"Without owners we would have no racing," Henderson added. "We are very grateful for their commitment and thank them for their support. We look forward to being able to increase prize-money further as soon as it is possible for us to do so.

"We are also very grateful to our official partners, Qipco and Longines, as well as our official suppliers, sponsors, broadcast partners and betting media partners. All of their support is deeply appreciated.

"We at Ascot much look forward to being able to welcome back our racegoers in June and delivering a special week of racing, both for those who are able to be with us on site and the many millions who will be with us in spirit through our broadcast and digital channels."

Read more:

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