Ascot play down Friday brawl with overall behaviour said to be good

The seriousness of a brawl that broke out in Ascot's Windsor Enclosure during racing on Friday, videos of which have circulated on social media over the weekend, has been played down by Nick Smith, the track's director of media and communications.

Smith insisted standards of behaviour at the meeting were generally good, and said: "There will always be some incidents in crowds of circa 70,000. We stepped up our security considerably last year and have maintained that, with many more highly visible stewards.

"In the rare event of incidences of antisocial behaviour, our reports indicate they were dealt with satisfactorily."

Smith has worked at 19 royal meetings but said the latest was "without question the smoothest".

He added: "There were several ejections, but arrests were well down. The dress code was beautifully respected and I can't remember attendees looking so smart. There was a great buzz about the place.

Punters look over the betting ring at Royal AscotCredit: Edward Whitaker

"People could now just be aware there's a zero-tolerance policy. I think they're beginning to realise the racecourse isn't a place to overindulge in drinking. I wouldn't say the problem has been eradicated overnight, but the nature of these events is moving the way organisers would want it to."

Attendance on Saturday was marginally up on last year at 75,316, compared to 74,417, but the previous four days were all down on 2018, not helped by poor weather for the first half of the meeting. Overall attendance of 292,719 was just over 9,000 down on last year's 301,818.

Reflecting on the slight drop, Smith said: "It's not material and I genuinely think racecourse attendances are static for the major festivals. You know broadly what you're going to get.

"You can have weather issues, people might have had uncertainty with the economic climate and Brexit, and the train strikes might have put a few people off, but a three or four per cent swing either way is of no material concern whatsoever."

He added: "Corporate hospitality was extremely pleasing and considerably better than last year, which was arguably a little bit surprising given the economic climate and Brexit uncertainties, but it didn't seem to make any difference at that level. We were thrilled with it."

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