Royal Ascot ready to run races behind closed doors if it goes ahead in June
What’s the point of Royal Ascot without the fancy dresses, absurd hats and the champagne-guzzling revellers who wear them? If there is an answer to that question, it will be identified this summer, as the 109-year-old event is to be staged behind closed doors, assuming that it goes ahead at all.
Fans of horse racing felt the ground shifting beneath their feet when the news was announced on Tuesday afternoon, just moments after Jockey Club officials said the first four Classic races of the year, the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, the Derby and the Oaks, were to be postponed indefinitely. The Guineas would normally take place at Newmarket in May, the Derby and the Oaks at Epsom in early June, but it is now accepted as impossible to press ahead with such important races on those dates.
It was widely imagined that Royal Ascot could also be postponed until, say, late July in the hope that racing might be up and running by then. But many of the races scheduled to take place there are designed for a particular moment in the development of twoyear-old and three-year-old thoroughbreds. Delaying them would mean bumping into competing races at other tracks, later in the summer.
Those who run the Queen’s track accept it will have to be mid-June or nothing, and they see no prospect, in view of the present restrictions necessitated by coronavirus, of their being allowed to bring in up to 70,000 people per day just two months from now.
But Ascot’s spokesman, Nick Smith, waved away a suggestion that the mood among staff must be one of depression. “To be absolutely honest with you, it isn’t. The things that are going on in the wider world do put this kind of thing into some perspective.
“This is going to be an extremely busy time for the team because we’ve got to make about 10,000 phone calls, make sure all customers are communicated with and understand what’s happening. At least we have the aspiration to run the races and deliver something for the industry. The mood is pretty positive, actually.”
While no corks will be popped in the stands, running the races would be of benefit to jockeys, trainers, owners and fans isolated at home in need of entertainment, not to mention punters and bookmakers. It would also provide the bloodstock industry with its essential annual insight into which animals are worth breeding from. “A lot of these races need to be run if we can,” Smith said. “We are a racecourse, that is our raison d’etre.”
The Royal meeting is insured but there are uninsured costs, so Ascot is facing what it describes as “a challenging year” which will affect its finances significantly. Prize money levels will have to be reduced, even if the races are staged.
“There will clearly be a material impact on prize money,” Smith said. “That’s the reality for, I think, all races that are going to be run this year. That’s the landscape we’ll have to operate in. But it is better, I’m sure, to run the Pattern races for the good of the breed and the breeding industry, for TV and betting, than not to run the races at all. We’ll do our best but material prize money reductions will be inevitable.”
Nor is it being taken for granted that the Royal races will actually be staged, even behind closed doors, given the current uncertainties. “There’s no way of knowing,” Smith acknowledged. “Governmental advice will be clear and so will the British Horseracing Authority’s interpretation of that advice. We will operate within that advice and be happy to do so.”
Earlier, the Jockey Club said it would have to postpone its Classic races to provide certainty to trainers of possible contenders. “Trainers need to know whether to step up preparations for their Guineas horses or put that on pause for a later date,” said Amy Starkey, who runs Newmarket. “The future is too uncertain at the moment and there is no opportunity for any preparation races before such important contests for the 2020 Classic generation.”
It means that some of the most important horse races are now in a dateless limbo, as officials must wait to learn when the sport can make some sort of return to action. Only then will it be possible to identify new dates for the two Guineas races, the Derby