European Pattern Committee makes upgrades for 2006 season
Royal Ascot will boast more depth this year after it was announced that the
European Pattern Committee had upgraded the Norfolk S. to Group 2 status.
Following in the wake of the similar enhancement in recent years to the
meeting’s other flagship juvenile tests, the Coventry and Queen Mary S., the
June 22 five-furlong contest was granted its new ranking after the Committee met
in Germany last week.
Also upped to Group 2 level are a pair of seven-furlong races — the July 14
Superlative S. for juveniles at Newmarket in July and Newbury’s Hungerford S.,
for three-year-olds and upwards on August 19.
York has stepped in to save the race formerly known as the Scottish Derby,
run for the last time at Ayr in 2005. The 10-furlong contest, which is yet to be
renamed, will remain a Group 2 and take place July 29. The committee also
revealed that three listed races, York’s Acomb S. on August 22, the Hackwood S.
at Newbury on July 22 and Lingfield’s Winter Derby on March 18, are to be
upgraded to Group 3 status.
“The Pattern race program in Britain is obviously a significant success story
and the most diverse in the world,” BHB Racing Director Ruth Quinn commented.
“Our strength in depth is reflected by the six upgrades to be introduced for
2006. We’re delighted to be able to enhance the Royal Ascot week further, and
also to see the achievement of our first Pattern race created from within the
AWT program. I am also particularly pleased that we are to see the upgrade of
the Hungerford S., as the improvement of the seven-furlong Pattern race program
is an area that we have focused on for some time. Recent years have seen the
upgrade of the Lennox S. at Goodwood and the Park S. at Doncaster over the same
trip, for example, and we aspire to have a seven-furlong Group 1 event in this
country, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.”