King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco S.

Ascot To Pay Out Record Prizemoney In 2022

Ascot Racecourse will offer record prizemoney of £15.64-million across its flat and jumps programmes in 2022, up nearly £2-million (14.4%) on 2019, the last year that planned prizemoney was distributed before the pandemic. These figures exclude the industry partnership QIPCO British Champions Day.

Royal Ascot on June 14 to 18 will offer £8,652,500, up 18% on 2019. Royal Ascot Tuesday will be the meeting's first-ever card to reach £2-million in prizemoney, and the G1 Prince of Wales's S. and the G1 Platinum Jubilee S. (formerly the Diamond Jubilee S.) will be the meeting's first races contested for £1-million. The minimum purse at Royal Ascot will be £100,000.

Outside of Royal Ascot, the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco S. will return to its pre-pandemic value of £1.25-million. The minimum purse for flat races will be £15,000, and the Shergar Cup will be worth a record £550,000 as it goes from six races to eight, with 12 runners in each, up from 10. An additional £25,000 in stable prizes will be offered on King George day and at the Shergar Cup.

Guy Henderson, chief executive officer at Ascot Racecourse, said, “We are pleased to be able to announce a return to our pre-pandemic prize money plans as we re-build. Whilst these plans have been unavoidably delayed, today is about looking forward. It is vital we maintain the quality of the British Pattern and the top end programme generally. For obvious reasons, a large proportion of the increases announced today are focused on our 35 races at the Royal Meeting.

“Prize money is racing's equivalent of remunerating the players on the pitch. We need to offer the best we can in order to attract the best and help maintain international investment in British racing. Our next ambition, as we build Ascot as a global brand wrapped around world-class racing, is to be able to offer at least £1-million for each of our nine Group 1 races in the coming years.

“Field sizes for races of both codes are under pressure. With this in mind, we have applied a number of targeted increases across our programme and raised our minimum prize money levels for both codes. Specifically, we have made some changes to QIPCO King George Diamond Weekend and expanded the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup to eight races with fields of 12; the established races increase from £60,000 to £75,000 and we have added two new £50,000 races. Our aim is for the stable prizes to incentivise owners and trainers to target these two fixtures and build on the successful trial at this year's Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup.

“I wish to conclude by thanking Ascot's staff, our customers and commercial partners for all their loyal support in 2021 which has so significantly contributed to the business being able to advance again in 2022.”

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Six Stand Their Ground For The King George

Aidan O'Brien cut his team for the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Qipco S. to two on Thursday, with last year's G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Epsom Oaks and June 16 G1 Prince of Wales's S. heroine Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) joined only by the July 4 G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}). Wayne Lordan takes the ride on the latter, who currently trades as the outsider of the six-strong field to underline the quality of this year's renewal. It will be likely stripped of Christopher Wright's G1 Prix de Royallieu, G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S. and G2 Hardwicke S. heroine Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) if the forecast thunderstorms fail to provide sufficient rain, but David Menuisier is playing a waiting game by confirming her for the prestige affair.

William Haggas believes the rain will not come in the kind of quantity required for his stable star Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) and opted to take him out at the final stage, while Prince Faisal's Mar. 27 G1 Dubai Sheema Classic winner Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) makes up the older contingent. The two 3-year-olds are Godolphin's June 5 G1 Epsom Derby hero Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and Ballylinch Stud and Aquis Farm's June 26 G1 Irish Derby runner-up Lone Eagle (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who receive eight pounds weight-for-age from the 4-year-old fillies and 11 from Broome and Mishriff.

Adayar will be looking to become the first blue riband winner to prevail here since Galileo 20 years ago and trainer Charlie Appleby spoke after his breeze under William Buick at Moulton Paddocks on Thursday morning. “I couldn't be happier with him. It was a straightforward final piece of work and he will go there on Saturday with no excuses,” he said. “It's true that before Epsom, I thought he was shaping more as a St Leger type. He's so straightforward at home, he never stood out in his work but, having said that, we always felt he was very good. On Derby Day, he showed us a turn-of-foot we hadn't seen before and he has sharpened up a lot for that experience.”

“Like everybody else, we've got a huge watching brief on this,” he added. “Everybody's wanting to know how good the three-year-olds are, particularly at a mile and a half. We would like to see what we are dealing with and I think the King George will provide the answers. Adayar is approaching his biggest challenge in tip-top condition and we are upbeat about accepting the challenge. His prep has been faultless. We have seen him maturing week on week. I believe he is physically stronger than he was at Epsom. When you see him in the paddock on Saturday, he won't look like a three-year-old against older horses. He looks like an older horse now.”

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