With Aussie heroine Asfoora looking to defend her King Charles III Stakes crown, what prizemoney will be on offer with Ascot announcing its excellent 2023 Financial results.
Now as the sixth Australian to win the King Charles, Asfoora earned her owners Noor Elaine Farm £390,093, A$751,700, winner’s purse of the race’s £650,000, A$1.3m, total prizemoney.
In fact, this year at Royal Ascot prizemoney totalled a record £10 million, A$19m, with all eight Group 1 races a minimum of £650,000, A$1.2m, and no race less than £110,000, A$210,000.
With a turnover of £110.9m and pre-tax profit of £5.9m, 2022 £3.4m, record prize money of £17.5m was returned in 2024 with voluntary increased loan repayment reduced ahead of schedule.
In announcing Alastair Warwick, Ascot’s Chief Executive Officer stated “Overall, we were pleased with our financial performance in 2023 with healthy revenue growth highlighting racing at Ascot.”
“As is being widely seen across the sport and leisure industry, costs have increased significantly which means we are operating in a challenging environment and to prioritise loan repayments.”
“Royal Ascot 2024 was a hugely enjoyable and successful week on a number of levels, and as we are yet to fully finalise the financial performance but we saw good hospitality and attendance.”
Turnover rose by 9% to £110.9m, with the Gross profit percentage felling from 34.5% to 33.8%, reflecting increased costs and general inflationary economic conditions.
Profit before tax increased by £2.5m but EBITDA rose by only £582k, 3.8%, depreciating that charge fell significantly as assets are fully written off and interest received on deposits benefitted.
£11m of the loan was repaid in 202, a £3m mandatory repayment and a voluntary partial early repayment of £8m, with Net debt as at 31st December 2023 was £9.5m, 2022 £17.2m.
On-course attendance rose to 514,208 racegoers, an increase of 6.3% on 2022, 25 racedays v 24.
Domestically, a new three-year deal was agreed with ITV in 2023 to show racing from Ascot between 2024-2026 including all races from all five days of Royal Ascot live.
A new four-year media and data rights agreement was also agreed with Arena Racing Company and an extension of the partnership with Sky Sports Racing.
Six of the top ten racehorses in the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings ran at Ascot while internationally trained horses from Australia, America, Hong Kong and France competed.
Total advertised prize money in 2023 across 25 planned racedays (excluding QIPCO British Champions Day) was £17m, an increase of £1.33 million on 2022 figures.
Strong 2023 performance enabled record planned prize money in 2024 with £17.5m set to be on offer, £10m at Royal Ascot 2024, an increase of 5% over 2023.