Glorious Goodwood prize money reduced - but more than £2m still up for grabs

Prize money for the 2020 Qatar Goodwood Festival will be £2.3m.
There's 2.3m in prize money on offer at this year's Qatar Goodwood Festival / Picture: Tommy McMillanThere's 2.3m in prize money on offer at this year's Qatar Goodwood Festival / Picture: Tommy McMillan
There's 2.3m in prize money on offer at this year's Qatar Goodwood Festival / Picture: Tommy McMillan

The Sussex course’s most prestigious meeting, which this year will start with Stradivarius’s attempt to win a record fourth Goodwood Cup on July 28, will offer the total prize fund across the five days.

It is around half of the amount that would be expected in a normal year but the 2020 festival cannot be held in front of paying members of the public.

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The feature race of the week – the Qatar Sussex Stakes – will be run for £275,000, and could be the race of the summer with Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Siskin potentially taking on Royal Ascot winner Alpine Star, and last year’s top rated two-year old Pinatubo.

Adam Waterworth, MD of sport at Goodwood, said: “Obviously prize money for this year’s Qatar Goodwood Festival is less than previous years, and significantly less than we would want, but any major race meeting is reliant on attendances and hospitality for the majority of its revenue.

"Without the support of all our sponsors – but especially that from the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club – we would not have been able to offer anything like the prize money levels we have announced today.

"I would like to thank HE Issa Al Mohannadi, Chairman of QREC, and their CEO Nasser al Kaabi, for working with us in this most difficult of times and continuing to support racing in the UK. QREC have been hugely supportive and their commitment to our pattern races is hugely appreciated.”

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Goodwood also enjoy the support of Unibet, who continue to sponsor the major handicaps through the week, and John Pearce Racing are new sponsors for this year of the Gordon Stakes.

Waterworth added: “Unibet have been great to work with throughout their sponsorship, and so it was no surprise that they have been so supportive of their races, and although this is not the way we hoped the first year of John Pearce Racing’s backing of the Gordon Stakes would play out, again I am delighted that with their support we can continue to invest in what is a really key race for us through the week”.

The Qatar Goodwood Festival will run from July 28 to August 1 and a number of trainers have already expressed an intention to briing some of the stars of the flat season so far to the event - with the Sussex Stakes line-up in particular beginning to look particularly strong.