ROYAL ASCOT has given a whopping prize-money boost to both the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
The two Group 1 contests will be worth a massive 1million for the first time next year.
Ascot’s announcement means no race at the five-day extravaganza will be worth less than 95,000.
The Diamond Jubilee has received a mammoth 400,000 injection of cash, while the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes has seen its prize fund boosted by 250,000.
The track’s chief executive officer Guy Henderson said: “Royal Ascot plays an important role for the industry in maintaining international investment in British racing.
“The progress we have made with our international commercial rights, our debt financing programme and our business as a whole means that we are now able to start to implement our long-held aspiration to increase the prize fund for our flagship and internationally relevant Group One races at Royal Ascot to 1 million – beginning with the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.”
“These two races, which historically appeal to international horsemen, have been selected first as being likely to produce increased income from overseas betting and associated media/data rights.
“Equally, there are so many six, and now seven-figure races staged around the world over these distances that we must be conscious of options open to our own locally-trained star horses.
“The UK LBO media rights landscape and levy picture remains very challenging – which makes it difficult to plan beyond 2020.”
