Ascot name new Group 1 Ascot Racecourse have announced that the new Group One race at the Royal Meeting, revealed as joining the programme in August, is to be named the Commonwealth Cup. The eighth Group One race at Royal Ascot will be run for £375,000 on the Friday card, replacing the Buckingham Palace Stakes. It will be open to three-year-old colts, geldings and fillies. The Wolferton Stakes has been moved from Friday to Saturday with the Duke of Edinburgh Handicap transferred the other way, to ensure a competitive handicap is run as the fifth race on each day of Royal Ascot. Prize money at Royal Ascot next year will increase to £5,585,000 from £5,310,000. Charles Barnett, Chief Executive at Ascot, said: "We are very excited about the Commonwealth Cup, which has already been talked of in positive terms by the connections of this year's leading two-year-old filly, Tiggy Wiggy, and American-trained Hootenanny, who won the Windsor Castle Stakes at this year's meeting and was subsequently successful at the recent Breeders' Cup. "Longer term, we are looking to attract interest from connections of horses that have run in championship two-year-old races in Australia like the Blue Diamond and the Golden Slipper, as they are counted as three-year-olds in the northern hemisphere at Royal Ascot. We think the Commonwealth Cup has significant potential. "It is pleasing to be able to stage the first £5.5 million Royal Meeting in 2015."
