£2,300,000 on offer across five days
photo: Pamela Burton
25 June 2020, UK ~ Goodwood Racecourse has confirmed the prize money for the 2020 Qatar Goodwood Festival. 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 28th, will offer a total prize fund of just over £2,300,000 across the five days.
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 Alpha Centauri, and last year’s top rated two-year old Pinatubo.
The Arabian race, the Qatar International Stakes, will be run at the on the rescheduled date of Saturday, 1 August.
Adam Waterworth, MD 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.”
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”.