The Jockey Club has announced its annual results

The Jockey Club has announced its annual results, including plans to raise prize money contribution to £20.9 million in 2016.

The owner of many of British horseracing's iconic assets, including the Grand National, Cheltenham Festival, Investec Derby and the National Stud, the Jockey Club has put more than £415 million back into Britain's second-biggest spectator sport over the last 10 years through contributions to prize money and upgrading facilities for customers and participants, according to its annual results.

The Group, whose Patron is Her Majesty The Queen, contributed an industry record £19.9 million to the sport's prize money last year (2014: £19.1 million).

The 336 fixtures staged in 2015 by Jockey Club Racecourses offered average prize money in excess of £130,000 per fixture, and increase of circa £10,000 per fixture and 64% more than the average available outside the Group. In the last 10 years The Jockey Club has contributed £154.1 million to prize money from its resources.

A commercially successful 2015 enabled The Jockey Club to deliver its prize money outlay and plough operating expenditure into enhancing a range of customer facilities during the year. For the seventh consecutive year the Group posted record turnover, up by 7.1% on prior year to £183.3 million, which also out-paced its 2014's turnover growth of 5.1%.

The Jockey Club's largest-ever facilities project, at Cheltenham Racecourse, was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal in November 2015 within its £45 million budget and three months early.

That development and other projects around the Group saw £36.6 million committed in capital and operating expenditure on maintaining and upgrading facilities during 2015, helping to take The Jockey Club's total investment in facilities and racing surfaces over the last 10 years to more than £261 million.

Simon Bazalgette, Group Chief Executive of The Jockey Club, said: "Every penny we make at The Jockey Club we reinvest into British Racing, in line with our Royal Charter commitments to support the sport's long-term health.

"In 2015 more people than ever came racing with us, more horses than ever used our training facilities at Newmarket and Lambourn, The National Stud went from strength-to-strength and we were able to commit record sums to prize money, enhance facilities for customers and horsemen, and support initiatives to ensure our sport remains part of the fabric of British national life.

"Significant progress was also made on several industry matters, including our sport's new stakeholder structure, Government commitments over British Racing's funding, an exciting new terrestrial broadcast deal from 2017 and a more efficient vehicle to provide media to betting shops from 2018, while The Jockey Club welcomed the support of new commercial partners and the sport as a whole reached more than 40% of the UK's television viewing audience.

"In 2016 we plan for our prize money contribution to increase by a further £1 million to £20.9 million, subject to abandonments, at a time when industry funding remains under pressure. That would be an increase of 61% since 2010 as a means of supporting British Racing as part of the £415 million we've put back into the sport these past 10 years. As we look ahead, we intend to find new ways to innovate and help to grow British Racing, and protect its fantastic traditions and heritage. On the back of such a strong year in 2015, I have every confidence that our sport can mean more, to more people, more often, in the years ahead."