Prize money hits record high as Newmarket celebrates two new group 1 races Newmarket´s prize money for the season is scheduled to increase by over £325,000 this year to a record £6,785,000. Within that total, the new-look UltimateBet.com Guineas Festival will be worth £1,014,000; the July Meeting is scheduled to carry £1,099,000, representing a remarkable 66% rise in just three years; the Cambridgeshire Meeting £1,084,000; and Champions´ Day £1,030,000The July and Cambridgeshire Meetings have both been boosted by the upgrading of races to Group 1 status by the European Pattern Committee. The UAE Equestrian & Racing Federation Falmouth Stakes, which will now be run on the first day of the July Meeting, and the Sun Chariot Stakes on the Saturday of the Cambridgeshire Meeting are both for fillies and mares over 1 mile and each is worth £200,000. These races bring Newmarket´s total of Group 1 races to nine, the same number as Ascot.When the attheraces contract termination was announced, Newmarket reacted by cutting the value of the UltimateBet.com 2000 and 1000 Guineas races by £20,000 to £300,000 each. So far these are the only two prize money reductions that have been made. Newmarket´s Clerk of the Course, Michael Prosser, commented: 'The Levy Board recently announced a £4m injection to prize money across Britain´s racecourses to help offset some of the effects of the attheraces deal collapse. I´m hoping that with our share of this, together with the increased sponsorship that we know we have, plus hopefully strong ticket sales for our upcoming meetings, then we might be able to keep any further reductions during the season to a minimum. 'Enhancing our race programme, increasing our prize money and making our major races as competitive as possible with those at other European racecourses are right at the top of our list of key objectives and I think we are more than achieving them at the moment.'
