Ascot Racecourse has announced that prize money for the 2009 Royal Meeting (Tuesday 16 June to Saturday 20 June) has been increased by £450,000 to £4,450,000.
Since the Global Sprint Challenge was launched in 2005, prize money for the King’s Stand Stakes and Golden Jubilee Stakes has increased every year to reflect their growing international significance and in 2009, the Golden Jubilee Stakes is up a further £75,000 to £450,000 and the King’s Stand Stakes has been increased in value by £50,000 to £300,000. In the short period since the inception of the Global Sprint Challenge, prize money for the two Royal Ascot sprints has all but doubled.
The Prince of Wales’s Stakes also increases in value by £75,000 to £450,000 in 2009, to maintain its status as Royal Ascot’s joint highest value race, with the Golden Jubilee Stakes.
In addition to the King’s Stand Stakes, £50,000 has been added to the Queen Anne Stakes, the St James’s Palace Stakes, the Gold Cup and the Coronation Stakes, which will all be run for £300,000 in 2009.
“These increases in prize money at Royal Ascot come hot on the heels of our announcement that the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (sponsored by Betfair) will be run for a record £1 million this year, £150,000 up on 2008.
“The Tuesday of Royal Ascot will open once again with a ceremony to introduce the leading jockeys to the crowd prior to the three Group One races. This year there will be over £1 million on offer on the opening day for the first time.
“2008 was an excellent year for Ascot, with record crowds on several occasions including the Saturday of Royal Ascot, the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup and the Saturday of the BGC Christmas Meeting. We also received the Racehorse Owners Association Gold Standard Award and finished the year hearing the news that Ascot was voted runner up Racecourse of the Year by the Racegoers Club, which was particularly gratifying.
“We’re fully aware, of course, of the current economic climate, but today’s announcement enables us to start 2009 on a positive note. Tickets for the Royal Meeting are now on sale with early booking discounts available until 15 May, with Grandstand Admission starting at £47 and the Silver Ring at £14.”
Nick Smith, Head of Communications and International Racing at Ascot, added:
“We will soon be starting our international promotional campaign in earnest with some interesting possible targets, particularly in Australia and Japan, including Japan’s latest star, Daiwa Scarlet, winner of last month’s mile-and-a-half Group One Arima Kinen, the most important race of the year there.
“We will be hoping to attract the Australian sprinters again, including Apache Cat, who was third in the Hong Kong Sprint in December. With the organising committee’s intention always to increase incentives for owners and trainers of the world’s top horses to travel, the US$1,000,000 Global Sprint Challenge bonus pool can now be won by winning any three qualifying Group One Challenge legs in any three different countries (from Australia, UK, Japan and Hong Kong), the important difference in 2009 being that there is no necessity to run in all four countries.
“With legs to be run in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong after Royal Ascot and the Darley July Cup, we hope that European trainers might consider campaigning internationally within the challenge too. For the first time this year, the bonus prize pool will be split US$ 750,000 to the owner of the bonus-winning horse, and US$ 250,000 to the trainer.”
