“I was used to fans,” Felicity Barnard, the chief executive of Ascot, says, recalling earlier roles in charge of commercial operations at Arsenal and West Ham. “At Arsenal, I was used to selling 60,000 shirts at the beginning of every season and that doesn’t happen here, so it’s teaching me how to be nimble and creative with our marketing year-on-year. That just isn’t necessary in football, because you’ve got people who will be with you for the whole of their life.”
Barnard, clearly, is a very quick learner. Since her arrival at Ascot in April 2021, initially as commercial director and then, from January 2025, as chief executive – one of the sport’s great offices of state – Britain’s premier racecourse has shaken off any lingering after-effects from the pandemic and seen attendances and prize-money rise year-on-year. Ascot was the only British course to attract more than half a million racegoers in 2025, its overall prize fund of £19.4m in 2026 will be another record, and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in late July will be the track’s first £2m race.
The track has been racing over jumps since Champions Day closed out Ascot’s 2025 season in mid-October, but Flat racing, the course’s heart and soul, returns on Friday, when a seven-race card will include several trials for the Royal meeting in June. It is a reminder that Ascot’s showpiece event opens in just over six weeks – although no one who lives or works in the capital should need much reminding. The track’s familiar “Ascot You” ad campaign, first launched in 2023, wallpapered the tube network and 200 black cabs in the early months of the year, and its glimpses of carefree, midsummer days in the sun have already shifted thousands of tickets for next month’s five-day meeting.
“We’ve been working on our Flat season for a long time,” Barnard says, “whether it’s the runners that are going to be with us or all the activity that we’ve got on site, and it’s very exciting for everyone as we go towards Royal Ascot.
“We captured the Royal Ascot campaign for 2026 [at the meeting] last year, and you’re always on it, always planning for it. It’s a global sporting phenomenon, as well as a cultural phenomenon during the English summer, which is something that we’re hugely proud of, and also unique.”
Newmarket 1.45 Earth Shot 2.20 Poseidon’s Warrior 2.55 Fort Rock 3.30 Bay City Roller 4.05 Golden Redemption 4.40 Stellar Sunrise 5.15 Cuban Lady
Ascot 2.00 Dance A Jig 2.35 Tabletalk (nb) 3.10 Coppull 3.45 Bowmark 4.20 Hockney (nap) 4.55 Crownright 5.30 Dosman
Goodwood 2.05 Harry Knows 2.40 Protection Act 3.15 King Of Light 3.50 Crepe Suzette 4.25 Kiss And Run 5.00 Lux Aeterna 5.35 Gallivanted
Warwick 4.30 Great Valley 5.05 The Dancing Tree 5.40 What A Glance 6.15 Imperial Esprit 6.50 Police Academy 7.25 Jeffery’s Cross 8.00 Unexpected Party
Newcastle 4.45 Project Kinsman 5.20 Star Cast 5.53 The Cursor 6.30 Eklleem 7.02 Starmade 7.33 The Green Man 8.10 Caragio
The uniqueness of Royal Ascot was a factor in Barnard’s jump from the Premier League to the sport of kings. There is no event in any sport with the meeting’s multiple strands of elite competition, royal patronage, fashion parade, garden party and all-round grand day out, and just a handful – the Masters, perhaps, or the Monaco Grand Prix – that are so inextricably linked with their location.
“We’re very lucky to have Royal Ascot as an event, and we’re custodians of it,” Barnard says. “We’re 300 years old, and all the learning that people long before me have brought to bear is the reason why Royal Ascot is such a success.
“The legacy was really interesting for me, and the [racing] industry [as a whole] has an incredible amount of history, stability and quality. I’m hugely positive about the sport, I love it and all the characters in it. Those varied stakeholders don’t exist in football like you’d think they would, and the rich tapestry within racing was a big appeal.”
Barnard’s dual role – custodian and executive – presents an interesting challenge: how to maintain cherished traditions and the sense of centuries of history while appealing to older and younger generations alike.
Pricing is at least part of the answer. In a week when sports fans discovered that a day at next year’s Ryder Cup in Ireland will set them back €499 (£434), the cheapest ticket for Royal Ascot – in the Windsor enclosure – is £25.
“We’re able to adapt and modify the products on site, and the experiences, and market them to different people,” Barnard says. “We offer everything from £25 tickets to tickets for thousands at the top end for our [restaurants with] Michelin-starred chefs, and everything in between.
“Our Village product in the infield is very ‘festival’ vibes, the dress code is different and it feels inclusive and welcoming, and we’ve seen the demographic and age of our consumers coming down quite significantly over the last three or four years.”
At a time of significant uncertainty in racing, Barnard is also keenly aware of Ascot’s importance to the sport as a whole. The track supported a recent call by a group including most of Britain’s biggest racecourses for significant reforms to give the major players a bigger say in racing’s future. The courses concerned are saying nothing more at present but, at a time when the industry is crying out for leadership, Ascot’s proven ability to plot a course through choppy waters offers at least a measure of reassurance.
“It’s not just about people coming to Ascot or coming back to Ascot,” Barnard says. “I believe that there is stretch in the sport and we work with a lot of other racecourses. If we can encourage anyone to visit York or Doncaster or anywhere else, that’s what we want to do.
“Within football, the numbers are big, it’s high octane and it’s always on the back pages. But funnily enough, if you work in the sport, those numbers are so huge that you can be a smaller cog in those big clocks that turn. And everybody at Ascot, and I’m sure it’s the same for racecourses around the country and around the world, has got such an integral part to play in the way that the sport moves forward.”
Storm can collect the cash in Guineas
Aidan O’Brien, who relies on Gstaad in Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, has saddled 10 previous winners of the Classic, three more than any other trainer in turf history, but he has also drawn a blank from 13 starters in the last six runnings while Charlie Appleby, who has two live contenders, has won three of the last four.
That recent pattern may continue this weekend, when Appleby’s Distant Storm (3.35), who was a length-and-a-half behind Gstaad when the pair were third and second respectively in last season’s Dewhurst Stakes, is worth backing at around 9-2 to turn the tables.
The recent trials, at the Craven meeting and Newbury, have produced little of note, while William Buick, Appleby’s stable No.1, has opted to ride Distant Storm rather than the unbeaten King’s Trail, and this step up to a stiff mile should be ideal for the son of Night Of Thunder, the 40-1 Guineas winner in 2014.
George Boughey’s unbeaten Bow Echo, the mount of 20-year-old Billy Loughnane, is another leading juvenile from last season with an obvious chance, but Distant Storm found an exceptional turn of foot to win the Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket in September and that touch of class could make all the difference on Saturday.
Goodwood 1.30 A closely matched field on ratings in which several have scope for significant improvement, but Argentine Tango ran some fine races in decent company as a two-year-old and looked as good as ever on her return in a Group Three at Chantilly last month.
Newmarket 1.45 A 5lb penalty is unlikely to put the brakes on Double Rush, who bolted up by nearly five lengths on his stable debut at the Craven meeting and looks set for a highly rewarding four-year-old campaign.
Goodwood 2.05 Three of the runners for this Listed fillies’ contest were in Group One company on their latest start, and this test could be ideal for the front-running Shes Perfect, demoted from first in the French 1,000 Guineas last season and then a non-stayer in the French Oaks.
Newmarket 2.20 Mister Winston was a comfortable winner here in April on his first start since late September and may not need to find much improvement to defy a penalty.
Uttoxeter 12.45 Desert Halo 1.20 Lexington Wood 1.55 Tap Tap Shamie 2.35 Joyeux Machin 3.10 Tom Desjy 3.50 Miss Maverick 4.20 Good Boy Griff 4.50 Ukantango
Goodwood 12.55 Ciarrai Abu 1.30 Argentine Tango 2.05 Shes Perfect 2.45 Aggagio 3.20 Serenity Dream 4.00 Urban Glimpse 4.30 Mohaaraj 5.05 Jeddaal
Newmarket 1.10 Flora Of Bermuda 1.45 Double Rush 2.20 Mister Winston 2.55 Rumstar 3.35 Distant Storm (nb) 4.10 Sovereign Spell 4.45 Gamrai 5.20 Splash 5.55 Skipper
Thirsk 1.35 Tamam Star 2.10 Town Queen 2.40 Blue Rc (nap) 3.15 Analogical 3.55 Rock Opera 4.25 Sports Coach 5.00 Front Gunner
Doncaster 4.35 Indefensible 5.10 Noelan Star 5.50 Lion O 6.27 Rose Of Honour 7.02 Sixpack 7.32 Trucial Pearl 8.02 Evocative Spark
Hexham 4.40 Seeyouinmydreams 5.15 Expensive Emotion 5.45 Earnest Belief 6.15 Sonigino 6.45 Marhaba Prince 7.15 Play By The Rules 7.45 Kicksaftersix 8.15 My Boy Christy
Thirsk 2.40 Having maintained his improvement on the all-weather over the winter, Blue Rc returns to turf on a workable mark and his strong-travelling run-style also looks ideally suited to track and trip.
Newmarket 2.55 Asfoora is the class act in the field for the Group Three Palace House Stakes but has a penalty and is likely to need the race so this could be Rumstar’s day to shine. He built a solid profile at a decent level after moving up from handicaps last season and remains unbeaten over this track and trip.
