Royal Ascot adds six races

There may not be a bumper crowd at Royal Ascot this year but there will be a bumper programme, after the course yesterday announced an extra six races, including consolation events for the popular handicaps, the Royal Hunt Cup and Wokingham Stakes.

Normally, Ascot sticks to six races a day, but there will now be seven on Tuesday to Friday and eight on Saturday. The meeting runs from June 16-20.

The other new races will all be handicaps, including the resuscitated Buckingham Palace Handicap, the Copper Horse Handicap (one mile and six furlongs), the Golden Gates Handicap (10f) and the Palace of Holyroodhouse Handicap (5f).

To give horses time to recover from running in the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas (at Newmarket on June 6-7), the St James’s Palace Stakes and Coronation Stakes will both move back to the Saturday. The Edward VII and Ribblesdale Stakes, previously consolation races for the Derby and Oaks, will now be run on the opening day as trials for those Classics, which have been pushed back to July 4 at Epsom.

Most two-year-olds will have had only one previous run at most, so the bulk of races for them will be run on Friday and Saturday to give them a few extra days’ preparation.

Describing the meeting as “an exceptional renewal”, Nick Smith, Ascot’s director of communication, said: “We are, of course, taking nothing for granted in terms of the Government’s final approval to permit behind-closeddoors sporting events from June 1.

“We are announcing the programme today, with the dates of the Royal meeting already public as part of the wider schedule for resumption, so that horsemen can begin their detailed planning.”

Royal trainer Andrew Balding, who was on the scoresheet at the meeting last year, welcomed the news. “I’m very happy to have more opportunities in a tough year,” he said. “It’s a very positive move and a real help.”

Fellow trainer Richard Hannon echoed those sentiments. “I think it’s brilliant,” he said. “The more all-inclusive the meeting is, the better.”