Ascot Racecourse. Owners Experience: Creating an uplifting experience win, lose or

Transcription

1 Ascot Racecourse Owners Experience: Creating an uplifting experience win, lose or

2 Objectives As part of our overall brand promise to Raise the Standard we set out to: 1. Create a step-change in the owners experience regardless of whether they win or lose. 2. Encourage owners to continue to run their horses with us we aim to deliver an elevated experience which leaves them with a wonderful memory of Ascot. 3. Exceed the expectations of a diverse customer group including large owners, syndicates and clubs. 4. Provide an unparalleled warm welcome and best-in-class hospitality. 5. Create a truly exclusive dining and racing experience by reducing congestion and queues in the dining room and increasing access to the Parade Ring at Royal Ascot. 6. Ensure equine welfare and comfort. For example, identifying that our small, industrial looking saddling enclosure was not befitting of the wider environment and acting accordingly by designing a new facility. 2

3 Delivery - We have created a bespoke concierge-style service offer for owners. A new arrival hub detached from the general admission entrances has been created in the Owners Car Park, where guests are personally met and welcomed. A dedicated manager deals with their requirements on a personal basis. During the summer, Owners have a private entrance and those who are first-time visitors are chaperoned around the facilities on arrival to help ensure that they have a seamless introduction to the racecourse. International owners are provided a full 360 service including organisation of local accommodation and car transfers. - Winning and placed connections are invited to enjoy their success by watching the race again and having a celebratory glass of champagne. Winners are sent a mounted photo montage as a keepsake. - We have established a Syndicates advisory group that will meet regularly to improve our offer for syndicate groups. So far we have managed to secure a considerably discounted box rate for the five day stage as well as the Horsemen s Lounge (mentioned below). - We have built a new 70 cover dining room overlooking the Horsewalk with panoramic views of the Royal Procession. This enables us to provide a better flow of owners through the facility. With up to three bars (Royal Ascot only) and two dining rooms available exclusively for owners, they now also have the opportunity to purchase additional lunches in the Flat season or have a complimentary table for the day in the National Hunt season. We have improved the quality of the complimentary food offered to owners. We now provide a two-course buffet in both seasons, complimentary wine and Afternoon Tea for Ascot Racedays, cater for all dietary requirements and facilitate any special requests (for example, a Birthday cake was arranged for an owner attending on their birthday). - The Horsemen s Lounge is an additional new space overlooking the Pre-Parade Ring which has been used to entertain European owners over Royal Ascot and can also be used as a base for syndicates on a rotational basis. - We have developed a spacious purpose-built unsaddling enclosure, landscaped to its surrounds and fitted with misting fans. This has delivered a marked improvement in equine welfare and provides a comfortable environment for unplaced connections. We have replaced all of the pop ups on the track and added a new filtration system to the pump station to ensure the best racing surface for the horses. - We have increased Parade Ring access at Royal Ascot from six passes per runner, to ten. - Everything is underpinned by a continued commitment to be a leading distributor of prize money, headlined by a 1 million increase at Royal Ascot this year. 3

4 Results - In 2016, over 2m was invested in owners enhancements including prize money increases and track & facility improvements. We purposefully set no short-term ROI objectives. This was an investment to raise the standard of the raceday experience for a crucial stakeholder group to support our brand promise and our long-term goal of maintaining top-class racing at Ascot. - Feedback from owners suggests that we have improved equine welfare and delivered a marked improvement in the owner experience. We drastically reduced what had previously been long queues for owners to enter and exit the lunch facilities on busy days. - We ve nearly doubled our dining space for owners, so we can seat up to 150 owners at any one time in the Flat season and 264 in the Jumps season. - Our investment is already supporting a stronger racing programme. Group 1 entries are at their highest level since the venue redevelopment in 2006 and runners over jumps were up 18% in 2015/2016. Kingsley Klarion Piece Aug 2016 Channel 4 Footage June 2016 (Please right click on picture to view footage) 4

5 Supporting Information Our group has the absolute best week of the year with you guys and I really hope we keep coming back. Without doubt my favourite week of the year and it starts with your generosity and hospitality. Gatewood Bell, Owner of Undrafted, USA We had a most pleasant day, first of all watching our syndicate horse come third and secondly enjoying an excellent lunch in the Owners and Trainers Dining Room, looked after by staff who really cared about our wellbeing. I sincerely hope our trainer will enter the horse again at future Ascot meetings! Mike Wright, Owner I just wanted to thank you so much for sorting out my wife s lunch on Saturday. It was truly fantastic and there were no problems at all. Everyone in the O & T Dining Room had been well briefed and were all very kind and friendly. I can honestly say that we have never had such accommodating service and as owners we go racing a lot, so are in a good position to compare different racecourses! Paul Bowtell, Owner Ascot really looks after its owners and it is very much appreciated, a shame other courses don t follow your lead. John Davies, Owner Brilliant looked after superbly with some fantastic ontoawinner.net owners. Simon Bridge via Twitter We thought the Ascot staff were all wonderful. The bottles of water at the end of the day and the ponchos at the beginning of the day were really nice, thoughtful touches and much appreciated. Everyone we encountered, without exception, was smiley, helpful and seemed genuinely pleased to see everyone. The attention to detail and the customer friendliness of everyone did not go unnoticed or, indeed, unappreciated. Annie Richardson, Cheveley Park Stud Pass on my thanks for the lovely warm welcome to all the old familiar staff at Ascot. From the car park attendant to the owners and trainers restaurant, it was a pleasure to meet everyone again. Always friendly and professional. Julie Wood, Owner. From the time we arrived at the car park collecting our badges at owners & trainers, lunch, tea up until the race, I would like to thank the extremely helpful and pleasant staff. Winning the race was very exciting and I am very sorry we had to dash but I understand our guests enjoyed a glass of champagne. Looking forward to hopefully another visit to Ascot very soon. Caren Walsh, Owner, Ireland The lunch was of a very high standard and everyone on our table remarked on how much they had enjoyed it, as well as the service. I hope I will be back again with a runner in the near future! Jon Homan, Owner I felt that I should write and say how much, as owners, we appreciate the excellent lunch facilities that you provide every race day, not just on big days. It is really well run by your staff who always make us feel very welcome, so much so that we always have lunch there when we have a runner and really enjoy the experience. Trevor Harris, Lordship Stud 5