Royal Ascot pulls in 1m viewers despite Euro 2024

July 19, 2024

Royal Ascot is one of the most important weeks on the horse racing calendar. The five-day meeting at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire attracts the best horses, jockeys and trainers from around the world.

This year, the meeting picked a peak audience of over 1 million viewers on ITV1 on each of the opening three days. Organisers of the event will be delighted with the numbers, as it was competing with Euro 2024m which was also live on terrestrial television at the time.

Kyprios Regains Ascot Gold Cup Crown

The feature race of the week at Royal Ascot is the Ascot Gold Cup on day three of the meeting. This year’s contest was won by a former champion, as Kyprios prevailed for the second time. He is now 8/13 in the bet on horse racing market to add the Goodwood Cup to his name on his next appearance at a major meeting.

Kyprios regains his Gold Cup crown! @Ascot #RoyalAscot pic.twitter.com/j5R3iEbW0x

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) June 20, 2024

As the horse racing results show, Kyprios won a tight renewal of the long distance contest by just a length. That race came just 35 minutes before England’s group game clash with Denmark at Euro 2024. The timing of the latter would have helped viewing figures for the Ascot Gold Cup.

ITV reported a peak audience of 1.06 million on the Thursday of the meeting, which was an improvement on 2023.

Wednesday The Best Day of The Week

Day two proved to be the best day of the week for ITV and Royal Ascot with a peak audience of 1.22 million. Both of those stakeholders will have been pleased with that number, which like day three, was an improvement on 12 months earlier.

Auguste Rodin was the big star in action on the Wednesday which helped bring in a big audience. The former Breeders’ Cup Turf winner won a hot renewal of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes. There were also wins for Running Lion in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes and Illinois in the Queen’s Vase.

Since Franke Dettori retired from riding in the UK, Ryan Moore has become one of the most popular jockeys in the sport. He rode a double on day two of Royal Ascot for his trainer Aidan O’Brien.

International Stars Shine

ASFOORA has made the long trip worth-while, with a dazzling turn of foot in The King Charles III Stakes. Kudos to @oismurphy and @HDwyerRacing 🇦🇺 #RoyalAscot #HorseRacing pic.twitter.com/I6Ag0DoPjf

— Ascot Racecourse (@Ascot) June 18, 2024

On day one of Royal Ascot 2024, there was a big performance from an international star as Australia mare Asfoora won the Group One King Charles III Stakes. The opening day was watched by a peak audience of 1.03 million viewers in the UK.

The international success of Asfoora may encourage more stars from Australia and elsewhere to make the trip across the meeting in 2025, which will enrich the quality of the racing further.

Sadly, for Royal Ascot, the numbers dipped on the final two days. Day four had a peak audience of 825,000, while day five was even less at 740,000. In 2023, both of those days had a peak audience of over 1 million.

There are still some big meetings to come on ITV Racing in 2024, with Glorious Goodwood, York’s Ebor Meeting and St Leger being just some of the highlights.