Officials appear upbeat despite decreased Royal Ascot attendance

Officials appear upbeat despite decreased Royal Ascot

attendance

Reduced attendances during Royal Ascot week were not greeted with despair by

the racecourse's new Chief Executive Charles Barnett as he reflected on the

latest meeting Sunday. Despite a decrease of more than 37,000 over the five days

compared to last year, Barnett was accentuating the positive.

"We are still going to have the best part of 275,000 people over five days,

which is an enormous crowd and most people would have gone away very satisfied,"

he told the Racing Post. "The fall was down to two reasons: one was that

some people did not have a great time last year and the second is I suspect

there is probably more of a movement towards Saturday and weekend racing from

the early part of the week.

"There are a mass of little things we will change, but there is not one big

rain cloud above my head," he continued. "We will sit down and have a debrief

with the whole team, speak to the trustees and get feedback from the customers

before we decide what to change."

Jimmy Fortune received the London Clubs International trophy for being the

leading rider at Royal Ascot after partnering five winners. He reflected back on

the achievement, which included a treble on Wednesday highlighted by victory on

Nannina (Medicean) in the Windsor Forest S. (Eng-G2)

"You come to these big meetings hoping to ride one winner," Fortune he told

the Racing Post. "To go away with five is spectacular. (Nannina) won a

Group 1 as a two-year-old and a three-year-old, and now she's come to Royal

Ascot and won as a four-year-old. She's been a special filly for me."