The Qipco British Champions Series defining new bench marks
The Autumn meeting at Ascot has always been the centre of attention for many reasons, the audience get to witness the incredible mix of all the five categories of the Qipco British Champions Series. Throughout the season, thirty-five of the top-class races
are categorised in five segments under the flagship of Qipco.
The Champions Day puts forth the sprint, mile, middle-distance, long-distance and fillies and mares. Each has a different mix of age group and distances that the contestants race over.
The total prize money for the Champions Day at Ascot in 2016 is expected to surge to £3 million to £4 million, and the current sponsor, Qipco, has extended the contract for five more years that now will go on until 2017.
Besides the funding arrangements, one of the prime objectives of the contract is to get the status of the five championship events to Group 1 within the span of the contract.
The chief executive of Qipco, Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah al – Thani commented:
"This objective complements our own expanding bloodstock and racing operation, in which we have made a substantial, ongoing investment and which will continue to be based in the UK."
Right now there are only two races that have the Group 1 level, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Champion Stakes, both of these races were shifted from Newmarket to Ascot during the previous season.
Even those races that fall into the Grade 2 and Grade 3 category, qualify all the grounds for making it to the most superior level. The prize money and the quality of competition pass the Sprint Stakes and the Fillies & Mares Stakes (Group 2 races) and the
Long Distance Cup (Group 3) to getting into the circle of Grade 1 events.
"It is part of a virtuous circle of higher prize money, high-quality horses, customer participation and broadcast coverage, all of which safeguards the status of British Flat racing, and a five-year deal gives us the time and resource to grow the Series
and Day further."
The chief executive of British Champions Series, Rod Street, commented on the contract.
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