King George Prize Money: A British Record

Ascot Racecourse announced on 20 July 2026 that the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes will be run for a British record £2.5 million in 2027. It is the third rise in three years for Ascot's midsummer Group 1, a mile-and-a-half contest for three-year-olds and upwards run on the Saturday of King George Weekend.

How much is the King George prize money in 2027?

The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes will carry a prize fund of £2.5 million in 2027. Ascot Racecourse confirmed the figure on 20 July 2026, publishing it alongside its 2025 financial results and describing it as a British record. Nick Smith, Ascot's Director of Racing and Public Affairs, is quoted in that release describing further momentum for what Ascot calls Britain's premier all-aged race.

Ascot attaches one qualification of its own. The release says a full prize money announcement for 2027 will follow in December, so the King George figure is settled while the rest of Ascot's 2027 programme is not.

The race itself runs without a sponsor. QIPCO backed it until 2024 and the sponsor's name sat in the race title then. None has been announced for 2027, so the correct current name is simply the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Is the King George Britain's richest race?

On the published figures it is set to be. No British race has been advertised at more than £2 million, so the 2027 King George is on course to be the richest single race ever run in Britain. Ascot's own wording is "a British record". The renewal has not been run, so the claim describes what is scheduled rather than what has already happened.

There is a precision worth holding on to here. Britain's richest race day is a different claim about a whole card of racing at a different fixture. The King George record is about one race.

How does the King George compare with Britain's other big races?

In 2026 the King George and the Derby were Britain's joint most valuable races, at £2 million each. Ascot's announcement of the 2027 figure makes no comparison with any other British race, so the comparisons now circulating belong to the racing press rather than to the racecourse.

Racing Post reported that the rise puts the King George £500,000 ahead of the Derby, measured against the Derby's 2026 fund. No 2027 figure has been published for the Derby, so that gap sets a 2027 number against a 2026 one rather than comparing like with like.

The same caution applies to the other two British Group 1s of the same few weeks. The Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and the Juddmonte International at York are both set to be run for £1.5 million in 2026, a record for each course, and neither has published a 2027 figure.

How has the King George prize fund changed?

Ascot publishes its own record of the race's advertised prize fund, running back through the years since the Grandstand was redeveloped. Set out year by year, it shows the 2027 figure as a rise of 25% on 2026 and double what the race carried from 2022 to 2024.

Those are advertised funds, which is what a racecourse announces in advance. The amount actually distributed on the day is a separate number and can differ, so the table describes what each renewal was advertised at rather than what was paid out.

Why is Ascot raising the King George prize money?

Ascot promotes the King George as one of the midsummer highlights of British racing, alongside the July Cup, the Sussex Stakes and the International Stakes, working with the Jockey Club, Goodwood and York under the Elite Races Scheme backed by the Levy Board and the British Horseracing Authority. Prize money is the most direct lever any of them has.

The longer target is European. Nick Smith, quoted by Racing Post, called the increase the second year of significant rises as Ascot tries to start building parity towards the Arc. The Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is due to be run for €5 million at ParisLongchamp in October 2026, and on 2026 figures it is the only European race advertised at more than the King George.

What does a bigger prize fund do for the race?

Prize money is how a midsummer Group 1 pulls in an international field. Ascot's own preview of the 2026 running described a field drawn from Britain, Ireland, France and Japan, with eight Group 1 winners in it, and nine went to post. The race has also been effectively free to enter since 2025, with entry fees refunded in full other than for horses supplemented into the field.

That pull is the point of the money. A race that brings the best middle-distance horses in Europe and Japan to Berkshire in late July is a different proposition from a domestic contest, and the prize fund is what buys it.

Who won the King George in 2026?

Kalpana won the 2026 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, ridden by Colin Keane for Andrew Balding. The five-year-old mare beat the previous year's winner Calandagan by a length and a half in 2m 27.72s on good to firm ground, with Benvenuto Cellini third. She had finished second to Calandagan in the 2025 running.

Kalpana races for Juddmonte, whose King George winners also include Dancing Brave and Enable, the first horse to win the race three times.

When is the next King George?

The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes is run on the Saturday of King George Weekend at Ascot Racecourse, the busier of the meeting's two days. The Friday opens the weekend with a six-race card of its own.

Background on the meeting sits on our King George Weekend hospitality page, and the 2027 fixture has its own Ascot King George Friday 2027 page.

King George Weekend is not Royal Ascot. The Royal meeting runs across five days in June, with a different card, a different scale of crowd and a stricter dress code.

Ascot station is a short walk from the racecourse and direct trains run from London Waterloo. Our guide to travel routes to Ascot Racecourse covers the journey in more detail.