Ascot turnover beats £100 million for first time but officials warn the environment remains tough

Ascot returned to profitability and broke the £100 million mark for turnover for the first time in 2022 but while chief executive Alastair Warwick was delighted by that landmark he warned the business environment remained tough.

According to the racecourse's latest set of financial results released on Monday, turnover rose by 161 per cent to a record £101.4m, with hospitality and admission revenues recovering strongly.

Ascot also made a pre-tax profit of £3.4m in 2022 but that was still down on the £7.3m recorded in 2019, which officials said highlighted the significantly increased overheads and operating costs of the current economic climate.

The course had made a loss over the previous two years due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the pre-tax shortfall in 2021 reaching £12.8m, so Warwick described the latest figures as "brilliant news".

"It's great to see the business back on good form and breaking a hundred million is a nice thing to do," he told the Racing Post. "2022 took an awful lot of hard work from the team. Without them it would have been even harder than it was."

Warwick added: "We've been focusing on the customer experience, so we have stopped worrying about attendance numbers a little and started focusing on the business model and what is going to allow us to invest into prize-money.

"Customer experience is becoming more and more what everybody wants, the thing that's different, that's unique and we are very lucky we have so many things – as this year's Royal Ascot proved – that make us unique."

Alastair Warwick: "We are in a good position to continue to improve both prize-money and facilities"Credit: David Sell

Ascot's financial figures mirrored those revealed by the Jockey Club last week which also posted record turnover in 2022 but with profits still below pre-pandemic levels.

Jockey Club chief executive Nevin Truesdale warned it was facing headwinds not only from rising costs but also from the negative impact of affordability checks on its income derived from betting.

Ascot runs its own on-course operation and Warwick said it had not seen the impact of affordability checks there.

However, he added: "If you are talking about revenues coming in through media rights channels we are seeing the same patterns as everybody else which in all likelihood is [down to] affordability."

Warwick also pointed to the sharp rise in the costs facing racecourses. Ascot's utilities bill has more than doubled in two years, and between 2021 and 2022 it went up by £600,000 – nearly 50 per cent. The course is budgeting for another £700,000 increase this year.

Warwick added: "Profitability is down but if you look particularly at last year the cost of labour went up hugely. We are now paying the London living wage to everybody including all our agency staff – that's 7,500 staff. That's a big commitment."

He added: "The reality is the business model is far less certain than it used to be and we are just having to manage it in the best way we can year by year."

Ascot also reduced its debt ahead of schedule through voluntary early repayments, with net debt standing at £17.2m at the end of 2022 compared to £25.4m the previous year.

Warwick said: "When it came to the end of the year and we saw what inflation rates were doing we probably chose to invest more than we would have done because it would give us a different saving given the direction interest rates were going."

Nevertheless, the performance in 2022 enabled Ascot to plan for record prize-money in 2023 with £17m set to be on offer, an increase of £1.33m against the previous year.

Warwick added: "Having further reduced our debt, including through a voluntary additional repayment, we are in a good position to continue to improve both prize-money and facilities."

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