Ascot Racecourse saw its profit soar last year as hundreds more people visited the iconic venue despite icy weather cancelling one of its key race days, newly-filed documents have shown.
After breaking the £100m barrier for the first time in 2022, the horse racing venue saw its turnover rise once again in 2023, up nine per cent to £110.9m.
Ascot’s record turnover was driven by an increase in ticket sales for its 25 race days, with the venue’s annual attendance rising to 514,208 people, up from 483,424 in 2022. This was despite one race day being cancelled due to frozen ground.
The uptick in ticket sales helped to boost Ascot’s pre-tax profit to £5.9m, up from £3.3m in 2022.
In a statement published to Companies House the racecourse said: “Royal Ascot, run over five days in June, normally has the highest attendance of all UK race meetings and the group remains confident of the continued success of this key race meeting and of the business.Ascot an
“Consistent with the Ascot Authority’s purpose, the group is committed to investment in future prize money and the racecourse facilities in order to retain its status as one of the world’s premier sporting venues, and to continue to attract racegoers and leading horses, trainers and jockeys from both the UK and the rest of the world.
“Ascot’s facilities are host to a number of non-race day events, including conferences, meetings, weddings, dinners and exhibitions.
“The group plans to maintain a focus on building race day sales income and on developing non-raceday conference and events revenues as a source of future growth.”
Record prize money for Royal Ascot
In December the racecourse revealed that prize-money at Royal Ascot would be worth £10m for the first time in 2024, with a record £17.5m on offer at the track across the 12 months.
Overall prize-money, excluding the industry-owned Qipco British Champions Day, was up from £16.8m this year.
All Group 1 races at the racecourse will be worth at least £650,000 – an increase of £50,000 for several top-level contests including the Gold Cup, Commonwealth Cup and St James’s Palace Stakes.
Nick Smith, director of racing and public affairs at Ascot Racecourse, said: “We are pleased to be delivering these prize money increases in 2024 against a backdrop of uncertainty and an unprecedented number of negative headwinds for the industry.
“The financial impact on all facets of the industry is already being acutely felt.
“It is, however, crucial for Royal Ascot to maintain its position on the global stage at a time when participants at home and abroad have so many alternative lucrative options away from Britain.
“Whist the main increases have been made to the Royal Meeting to enable us to get to £10m for the first time, we have made increases in other areas of the programme as well.
“These include increases to fit with the new Premier fixture structure, including at the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup, where there is a particular focus on maintaining full fields.
“Importantly, no race at Ascot will be run for less than in 2023 including at our Core (non-Premier) fixtures.
“This is in spite of a reduction in central funding to this element of the programme, which has therefore required further increases in executive contribution.”