Royal Ascot prize money cut from £8.1m to £3.7m this year due to staging five-day meeting without fans because of the coronavirus crisis
- Royal Ascot will remain a five-day meeting and take place behind closed doors
- There will be seven races on the first four days, with eight on the final day
- Around 70 per cent of revenue is from public admissions, including hospitality
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Royal Ascot prizemoney has been slashed by more than 50 per cent as the track prepares to stage this season’s meeting with no crowds and the majority of its income streams turned off.
Prizemoney at the five-day meeting, which starts on June 16, was due to be £8.1miilion, with the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and Prince of Wales’s Stakes being the royal meeting’s first races worth £1m.
But total purses will now be £3.7m, with the Diamond Jubilee and Prince of Wales’s Stakes worth just £250,000 each, the same as the six other Group One contests at the fixture.
Royal Ascot to start on June 16 and five-day meeting will take place behind closed doors
Ascot chief executive Guy Henderson said: ‘2020 was set to be a landmark year for Royal Ascot prizemoney, but unprecedented times have intervened. Some 70 per cent of our annual income is from public admissions, including hospitality.’
Candidates for the royal meeting emerged in the six two-year-old races at Newmarket on Thursday.
There were winning debuts for William Haggas-trained Sacred and Mark Johnston’s Eye Of Heaven, who set a track record over five furlongs for two-year-olds.
The Queen will not be able to make her traditional appearance this year due to coronavirus
