A day after officials at Newbury reported a healthy turnout for the May 17 Lockinge Stakes (G1) at the Berkshire track, their counterparts at Ascot have reported tickets to be selling like hot cakes for next month's royal meeting.
For the first time since the COVID pandemic, tickets for the Saturday of Royal Ascot are already sold out in all enclosures, while Gold Cup day on Thursday is not far behind as the racecourse team prepares for what it hopes will be a bumper turnout across the five-day meeting starting June 17.
"All enclosures are currently up on sales year-on-year," said Will Aitkenhead, head of corporate and industry affairs at Ascot. "Saturday is now sold out across all enclosures, with Thursday almost there as well. Tuesday and Friday sales are slightly ahead year-on-year with Wednesday slightly behind, so the overall picture is really positive."
Aitkenhead said reducing ticket prices for the Windsor enclosure has had a positive impact on advance sales and highlighted a pleasing level of repeat customers after a successful royal meeting in 2024.
"I think it's a case of a really good year last year in terms of experience, with customer complaints at an all-time low, and so lots of people are wanting to come back again," he added. "A really competitive racing product, which we've seen over the last couple of years, also plays a part. No race had less than eight runners last year, and Royal Ascot is also unique from a fashion, pageantry, and lifestyle perspective. There's also no Euros or Olympics to compete against this year, so that helps."
Newbury has seen attendances rise across the board since chief executive Shaun Hinds joined the track last year.
Hinds put Newbury's success down to a "clear" ticketing strategy whereby early early-bird bookers receive significant discounts and a "well managed" email, marketing, and social media campaign that supports that strategy. Ascot uses a similar strategy, according to Aitkenhead, with extra focus given to the advertising campaign for Royal Ascot this year.
"We set our ad campaign live earlier across out-of-home placements in Reading, Clapham Junction, and Waterloo to strategically target audiences traveling for other sporting events, including the Six Nations and Cheltenham," he said. "We've also been able to take advantage of the use of motion across selected digital placements and 250 taxis across London carry a Royal Ascot ad. We've tapped into some podcast ads for the first time as well."
Hinds warned the sport not to become complacent when it comes to racing's core customers, a sentiment echoed by Ascot.
"I think we would absolutely echo what Shaun says and, in terms of the early booking plans, we would be very similar to Newbury, rewarding those people that book early," added Aitkenhead. "I'm not sure we would speak for racing as a whole, but we know it's always easier to get people to come back than to convince new people to come racing, so we need to look after the existing customer base just as much as attracting new audiences. They need to work hand in hand, and we always try to strike that balance."
