ROYAL ASCOT (19-23 JUNE 2018)

[twocol_one][dropcap]T[/dropcap]his year’s Royal Meeting provides a record £7.3m in prize money, an increase of 10% on 2017. No race at Royal Ascot will be run for less than £90,000. The eight championship Group 1 races are each worth a minimum of £500,000. Horses have been racing across the turf at Ascot for more than 300 years and this week will certainly witness more heroic sport of the highest quality within beautiful surroundings. The Royal Meeting promises five days of world-class racing, high fashion, pageantry and fine dining as the racecourse welcomes more than 300,000 visitors from across the globe – a truly remarkable occasion.

Minor order of running changes have been made for 2018, following the EPC’s confirmation of race planning changes in Britain related to Listed Handicaps.

Royal Ascot has staged two Listed Handicaps in recent years – The Wolferton and Sandringham. Following consultation through the BHA Flat Pattern Committee, the Wolferton now becomes a straight Listed race and the Sandringham becomes a regular handicap. The Wolferton as a non-handicap moves to Tuesday from Saturday, in order to maximise the distance between it and the Listed Gala Stakes at Sandown in its new form. The Windsor Castle Stakes moves to Saturday in reverse. The Sandringham Handicap moves from Wednesday to Friday. This race is now, effectively, a fillies’ Britannia and will be run as race five on the card. This brings into line the feature handicaps on each day being run as race five, arguably the most betting friendly position for such races. The Queen’s Vase moves in reverse from Friday to Wednesday, when no Village (infield) Enclosure operates. This is considered to be a more suitable environment for the three-year-olds, [/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last]

without a crowd where the stalls are positioned.

In its continuing international expansion of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, the Breeders’ Cup, in conjunction with Ascot Racecourse, announced that winners of this year’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes (G1), Queen Anne Stakes (G1) Norfolk Stakes (G2) and Diamond Jubilee Stakes (G1) at the Royal Ascot meeting, will be awarded automatic “Win and You’re In” berths into the 2018 Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Churchill Downs.

The 2018 Goffs London Sale in association with QIPCO will once again take place on the eve of Royal Ascot, Monday, 18 June 2018. The sale like no other, proffers buyers from around globe the rare and unique opportunity to buy into top quality breeding stock and horses-in-training, many of whom hold entries at the Royal Meeting, therefore allowing purchasers to buy a Royal Ascot runner and see it run under their own name and in their own colours. This year will mark the fifth anniversary of the sale and will see a change of venue for the 2018 renewal, albeit at the same address, on the Greenfield Perks Field site in Kensington Palace Gardens while renovations take place at the Orangery. Henry Beeby, Group Chief Executive of Goffs said: “We have been thrilled with how the sale has developed and grown since 2014 with numerous success stories to come out of it, but we are always looking to improve and refine it each year. As we prepare for the fifth sale, the new site will allow us to create something bespoke and as a shop window on the eve of the most global race meeting in the world, we want to provide a spectacular experience for those who attend whether they are a new or existing buyer.”[/twocol_one_last]

ROYAL ASCOT FACTS AND FIGURES
ROYAL ASCOT IN NUMBERS
AN OVERVIEW

• The first Royal Meeting took place at Ascot in 1768
• Britain’s most popular race meeting, welcoming 300,000 racegoers across five days
• 70,000 racegoers attend Thursday’s Gold Cup Day
• The most valuable race meeting in Britain with over £7.3m in prize money features 8 Group One races and 19 Group races in total
• Broadcast in approximately 175 countries around the globe with a reach of 650 million households
• Approximately 400 helicopters and 1,000 limos arrive at Royal Ascot every year
• 5 Michelin stars and 13 AA Rosettes combined
• There are 163 full-time staff, which increases by more than 6,500 temporary staff during Royal Ascot
• Over 2,000 hours of staff training delivered to maintain the high levels of customer service expected
• There are 3,500 cleaning shifts running on a 24-hour cycle during the week
• 26,000 items of temporary furniture are hired in for the Royal Meeting
• 25,000 people signed into Ascot’s free Wi-Fi at the Royal Meeting last year
• More than 12 million user engagements expected across Ascot’s social media channels
• 30,000 people downloaded the free Ascot app in 2017
• 33 live music acts perform across the five days
• 173,000 racecards printed
• 509 horses ran across five days last year
• 22.5 hours of live television coverage on ITV
• 3 miles of bunting
• 330 chefs, 12 restaurants, 17 private dining facilities and 208 private boxes 39 professional kitchens operate during Royal Ascot Over
• 13,000 flowers and shrubs are grown and planted at Royal Ascot