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As posted elsewhre, it’s done and dusted and it will happen, whether we support the change or not. But unless I’ve missed the relevant details, I’ve seen nothing in the welter of media briefings or positive statements that tells me how this bonanza is to be funded.
The publicity talks about £3M in prize money – that’s the equivalent of 7.5% of the total Levy prize money contribution for the entire year, being spent on a single meeting. The only specific ambitions I’ve seen are £1.3M of the Champion Stakes and £1M for the QEII.
The QEII run two days ago, sponsored by Sony, was worth £250K, which incidentally is LESS than it was worth fourteen years ago when Dettori produced his magic.
The Champion Stakes scheduled next month is worth £350K, sponsored by Emirates Airlines.
So Ascot needs to find another £1.7M, just to achieve the target for those two races. I’d guess we can add another £300K for the boosts to the other races on the card, taking the total shortfall to at least £2M.
Are the sponsors already on board – are new sponsors to be announced? Or is this figure of £3M all part of the fantasy?
Anyone care to venture a bet on what the total actually will be come October 2011?
AP
I guess the Beeb (if they have the rights to this meeting) will have to promise to screen on BBC1 to gain a maximum audience rather than hiding it away on 2 and also advertise the meeting to death between progs for about 2 weeks beforehand. Then the figures may reach 50% of their projections
I believe the £3m will be found. I can’t believe they would go to the press again with something like this without thinking the backing is there/will be there.
But, with this idea, I can’t work out why the day is pumping huge amounts into two races. I’m starting to think it has potential, although not quite the way the BHA see it. Whether the £3m includes the other handicap on the card or not, why is the prize money not split evenly between the 5 "championship" races? There are some clauses in the European Pattern rules regarding prize money of G2, G3 events, I know. With the desire to upgrade these races, with the fact the Arc meetings strong-point is not the Abbaye and Cadran, if the prize money for the Diadem and Jockey Club Cup was 500k per race, surely that would help more than having a £1m QEII and £1.3m Champion Stakes?
The QEII, for example, will remain uncontested as the main G1 mile race in Europe imo. Perhaps the movement of it will allow horses to compete easier in 3 of the 4 major 3yo+ G1 1m races in Europe. Sussex/Prix Jaques Le Marois, then the Moulin then the QEII.
The publicity talks about £3M in prize money – that’s the equivalent of 7.5% of the total Levy prize money contribution for the entire year, being spent on a single meeting. The only specific ambitions I’ve seen are £1.3M of the Champion Stakes and £1M for the QEII.
Are the sponsors already on board – are new sponsors to be announced? Or is this figure of £3M all part of the fantasy?
They may represent no more than a maximum; a wish list rather than set-in-stone costed audited figures
Presumably the existing sponsors will be asked to stump up more cash (hardly ideal times for such a request) and for those races currently unsponsored (are there any?) new sponsors will be approached
Also it would seem safe to assume that entrance fees for the ‘big day’ will be Royal meet hefty, with a ‘Champions’ premium added to fees at those meetings holding other Series meetings earlier in the year
Some of the answers to the question I raised four years ago have now emerged in a report in the Racing Post.
And the main issue is that the company responsible for this meeting and the other races in the series, BCS (run by the Qipco British Champion trougher Rod Street) are living on tick. They currently owe around £6M to various groups, that include Ascot and Jockey Club Racecourses, and it’s not at all clear how they can ever hope to repay such a sum.
Much the worst piece of information in this report is that the Levy Board have contributed £400,000 towards the prize money this year, which I presume is a payment, rather than a loan. I regard that as a total disgrace and completely at odds with the remit of the Levy Board.
When this shambles finally collapses under the weight of it’s own contradictions, with no sponsor to replace the vast amounts coughed up by Qipco after 2017, diminishing attendances at Ascot (24,000 last year, 32,000 the year before, any bets for 2014) and the lack of appearancs from the best horses, there are going to be some serious amounts of money lost.
AP, it does look rather bleak all things told.
If anyone has not read the article, it is here.
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/the-price-to-pay-for-staging-racing-fit-for-champions/1734496/latest/#newsArchiveTabs=last7DaysNews
How soon before racing, especially Ascot, becomes affordable only to rich people as regular punters such as myself won’t be able to afford the admission prices? That’s the only way racing is going to to pay back the money that’s owed through the people who can least afford it.
The attendence level is now not much higher than the original festival of racing day,as for the prize money,the 607,000 on offer for the fillies/mares race is obscene as that more than the Cheltenham gold cup and look at the awful standard of race they’ve got!
Love it. Most of the time we complain prize money is rubbish. Now we are complaining it is too high!! Can’t win.
"this perfect mix of poetry and destruction, this glory of rhythm, power and majesty: the undisputed champion of the world!!!"
Excellent articles on this shambles methinks ,however the buck stops with the Bha executive who authorised racing for Change to go ahead with this !!!
Newmarket was fine , maybe it will end up back there when this mess unravels , but heads must roll for the mistakes made
The only way to salvage is either to change the date to Early September ,or find a very rich sponsor to pay the entire debt ..simples
fun times ahead
Ascot has already had in 17 days, more rainfall than its monthly average for October, so the current weather situation in nowhere near normal for October at the track.
They’ve been very unlucky with injuries and retirements, could happen any year.
The QE2 lineup is particularly disappointing, but the Cirrus/Free Eagle clash should be compelling (if it goes ahead).
As for the money….none of it comes from public funds so I’m at a loss as to why people are so upset about it. Companies lend money to other companies, companies have debt…..c’est la vie.
If we had Australia, Kingman, Taghrooda etc… and a bit less rain, all would be well with the world.
Still really looking forward to it, normal service resumed next year.
Enjoy!
This year’s attendance was 28,741. Mr Street’s original target for the first Champions Day at Ascot was 30,000 – he conveniently reduced that to 25,000 nearer the event. Champions Day at Ascot hasn’t reached Street’s original attendance target in three out of the four years.
Mr Street also had a "long-term" target of 40,000 for 2016.
Sheikh Fahad thought that it was the best day’s racing of the year. As long as he thinks it, I guess that’s all that matters… because three races this year (Champion, QEII, F&M) certainly weren’t better than they were prior to the changes.
The marketing men are making great play of the ‘15% increase in attendance over last year’. And unsurprisingly not mentioning that last year was 25% down on 2012.
And of course they’ve now resorted to the standard method of boosting the crowd, by sticking a music event on after racing and making that the focal point of their advertising.
Have a guess what aspect of the day Rod Street was tweeting about on Saturday morning – clue, it didn’t include the name of any horse.
The marketing men are making great play of the ‘15% increase in attendance over last year’. And unsurprisingly not mentioning that last year was 25% down on 2012.
The 2012 figure was massively inflated by the Frankel factor with nationwide media coverage. If one removes that as an outlier, the attendances have been:
2011: 26749
2013: 24290
2014: 28741I think that’s pretty acceptable.
And of course they’ve now resorted to the standard method of boosting the crowd, by sticking a music event on after racing and making that the focal point of their advertising.
Have a guess what aspect of the day Rod Street was tweeting about on Saturday morning – clue, it didn’t include the name of any horse.
I only see two tweets on Mr Street’s timeline for Saturday morning, one showing the promo film for the day and another a picture of the course.
Whatever the ‘music event’ was, I never heard it mentioned anywhere. "The focal point of their advertising." Really??
Mike
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