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A prize money boost of over £3 million at The Jockey Club racecourses for the remainder of 2021 was announced on Tuesday.

This purse increase brings prize money to within 9% of pre-pandemic levels. Total prize money will exceed £42 million this year at all levels of the sport for the 15 racecourses operated by The Jockey Club. This amount is prior to additional funding from the industry's Appearance Money Scheme (AMS). These prize money increases are effective immediately, with the Cazoo Derby Festival gaining £65,000 and a £135,000 boost to Coral-Eclipse Day.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Jockey Club distributed only £30.5 million in prize money and racing was halted from mid-March until June. As The Jockey Club generates nearly 50% of its revenues from spectators and another 10% by staging conferences and similar types of events and neither of these were possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Jockey Club sustained an overall loss of £90 million. This trend continues into 2021. Pre-covid, The Jockey Club managed to increase its contribution to prize money by over 103% in the last decade to £26.4 million.

“One of our imperatives since the start of the pandemic has been to keep prize money values under constant review,” said The Jockey Club Chief Executive Nevin Truesdale. “The financial impact of coronavirus has been very significant indeed and it will take some time yet to recover. However, with some positive indicators around funding and with spectators starting to return, albeit in heavily restricted numbers at this point, we wanted to move quickly to announce this prize money increase.

“The biggest issue aside from losing so much of our revenue has been the constant uncertainty. If you could guarantee after the second lockdown that things would return permanently to normal, we would have been able to plan investments accordingly, but here we are well over a year into the pandemic and we are only just starting to welcome some racegoers back. Therefore, we continue to have to play the situation as it comes and ensure we would remain solvent if another lockdown occurred.

“I'd like to thank participants for the huge amount of patience they've shown and reassure them that The Jockey Club always treats prize money as an absolute priority, as I hope our track record and this announcement leaves no doubt about. We aim to get our prize money contributions fully back to pre-pandemic levels as soon as we realistically can.”

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The Cazoo Derby Festival on June 4-5 and Coral-Eclipse Day on July 3 both received an increase in prize money, The Jockey Club announced on Tuesday. Limited spectators returning to racecourses, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, was cited for the increases.

Held at Epsom Downs Racecourse, the Cazoo Derby Festival's purses were increased 12% across the 11 non-Group 1 races. None of the races over the two-day stand will be run for less than £40,000 and no handicaps will be worth less than £50,000. The Cazoo Derby is still worth £1,125,000, the G1 Cazoo Oaks will keep its purse of £375,000 and the G1 Coronation Cup S. has an unchanged prize money of £315,000.

At Sandown Park, prize money has been raised 18% to £900,000 for the entire card. The G1 Coral-Eclipse, part of the QIPCO British Champions Series, has an increased purse of £600,000, and the Coral Charge H. is now worth £75,000, an increase of £25,000. In addition, two races normally run the day prior to Coral-Eclipse Day have been moved to July 3-the £40,000 Coral Day H. and the £25,000 coral.co.uk H.

Andrew Cooper, Head of Racing and Clerk of the Course at Epsom Downs and Sandown Park, said: “It has been a difficult time for us at The Jockey Club, as it has been for everyone, and in several ways that remains the case. Racegoers generate around 50% of our revenues and so with them away from our 15 racecourses for so long our finances have been significantly impacted and remain so as the pandemic continues.

“However, now we are starting to be allowed a very limited number of spectators back, we are immediately taking the opportunity to boost prize money. Therefore I am pleased to confirm we are able to increase the value of the non-Group 1 races across both days of The Cazoo Derby Festival by 12% and with the prospect of more spectators at Sandown Park, we're committing to boost prize money for Coral-Eclipse Day by 18% above currently advertised values.

“Owners who put so much into the sport have been incredibly patient during the pandemic and this period of huge uncertainty. All of us at The Jockey Club are keen that as soon as the financial picture improves we see that reflected in prize money funding, which is always a top priority at Jockey Club Racecourses.”

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