ASCOT Racecourse chief executive Guy Henderson has described last week's Royal meeting as "a tremendous week of racing," writes Dave Wright.

Speaking on Saturday, he said: "Our ambition is to make year-on-year improvement in staging one of the highest quality race meetings in the world. We had a great conclusion seeing Godolphin make history with Blue Point becoming the first British-trained horse to win both the King's Stand Stakes and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.

"With runners from six countries in the competitive Diamond Jubilee Stakes, this represented what we are seeking to achieve on the world stage.

"We have seen some amazing performances on the track and we will never forget Frankie Dettori's fantastic four-timer on Thursday. It was great on Friday to see Hayley Turner become the first female jockey since Gay Kelleway in 1987 to win at Royal Ascot.

Henderson continued: "The Royal meeting remains truly international with nine nations represented this year.

"It was exciting to see a French-trained winner in the shape of Watch Me in the Coronation Stakes on Friday and the Nagano Gold came close to making history for the Czech Republic with a fantastic second in the Hardwicke Stakes.

"Saturday was a sell-out in the public enclosures and we have been very happy with the attendances during the week. We are particularly happy with the performance of hospitality which was robust and well up on previous years.

"It was a tricky start to the week with two wet days, but we were extremely proud in the way we delivered the site from Thursday onwards after the inclement weather.

"Royal Ascot remains a fundamental part of the British summer, the sporting landscape and the global racing calendar.

The total attendance for the whole week was 292,719, slightly down on last year's figure of 301,818, with Saturday's meeting attracting 75,316.

Ascot's Clerk of the Course, Chris Stickels, commented: "I thought it was a week of excellent racing. The weather played a hand this year and made it easier in one way for our groundstaff as we didn't have to water the track in the build-up to the meeting. But there was quite a bit of repair which needed to be done after the rain at the beginning of the week.

"We had five millimetres of rain on the Tuesday and 10 millimetres on Wednesday which turned the ground soft. Then the beautiful June sunshine came out and we're thrilled to end up with nice ground on both the straight and round course for the last day."