Prizemoney at The Jockey Club's racecourses will return to pre-pandemic levels for the fourth quarter of 2021. The Jockey Club will increase its prizemoney contributions by almost £1.5-million in the final three months of the year, boosting total purses for that quarter to more than £12.5-million; the projection had been £11-million. Therefore, total prizemoney for The Jockey Club's 15 racecourses in 2021 is expected to be more than £46-million.
Prizemoney will increase across all levels at The Jockey Club's racecourses, and major races positively impacted include the G1 Darley Dewhurst S. and the G1 bet365 Fillies' Mile (advertised as £450,000, now £500,000); and the G1 Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot S. (£225,000, now £250,000).
Nevin Truesdale, chief executive of The Jockey Club, said, “A big priority for us has been to get to a position in our recovery where we can advertise prizemoney at pre-pandemic levels as quickly as possible. When you add 2020 and our 2021 outlook together, the pandemic will have cost us more than £170-million in lost revenues, so originally it seemed we would need to wait until 2022 to have any chance of making this announcement, but I'm delighted and tremendously proud of the team that we're able to bring this forward.
“We're optimistic about the future, but despite today's announcement we are continuing to operate under uncertainty as a business. This includes whether any restrictions on our operations will be reintroduced or deter racegoers at any point in the remainder of 2021 or into 2022. As such we'll need to keep planning on a relatively short-term basis for the foreseeable future and contribute the maximum we can back into the sport, including all our areas of investment beyond prize money.
“It's no secret that we view prize money as vital to the livelihoods of those working in the sport; it provides an important return for racehorse owners and encourages the competitive racing that we all want to enjoy. We're working hard to drive the sort of underlying growth and commercial success that allows The Jockey Club to continue to increase its contributions to British Racing, which has always been, and will continue to be, our aim.”
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