Royal Ascot Prize Money Breaks £5 million Barrier

Britain’s prestigious Royal Ascot has increased its prize money to a record £5 million ($7.5 million), in an effort to attract the top race horses from around the world.

As well as reaching the £5m Royal Ascot milestone, prize-money for the year is more than £10m which was reached once before in 2008.

The Queen’s representative at Ascot described breaking the £5million prize-money barrier at the Royal meeting for the first time this year as a “real milestone”.

Johnny Weatherby, who looks after Her Majesty’s interests at the Berkshire course, is thrilled the cash increases to the races has taken the total for the five days past that magic figure.

He said: “We are delighted to be able to announce these prize-money increases and a £5m Royal meeting is a real milestone for the country’s flagship flat race meeting.”

Weatherby also announced that The Queen has given permission for the Windsor Forest Stakes to be renamed the Duke of Cambridge Stakes in honour of her grandson, Prince William.

“We are also naturally thrilled that Her Majesty The Queen has graciously consented to renaming the Windsor Forest in honour of her grandson, the Duke of Cambridge,” he said.

That race has gone up £25,000 to £125,000, while the biggest increases are of £100,000 each to the St James’s Palace Stakes and Coronation Stakes. They are now worth £350,000.

Ascot chief executive Charles Barnett said: “We have worked hard to make the international races competitive globally in recent years and our focus this year has been to enhance the top three-year-old races, the feature handicaps, the two-year-old championships and the programme generally.