The true cost of teething troubles at last year’s royal meeting will rise steeply next week with a sharp fall in attendance revenue. The five-day fixture has routinely drawn more than 300,000 spectators but Nick Smith, Ascot’s head of public relations, predicts that the 2007 aggregate will be 270,000.

“We knew we would take a hit and it could be about 30,000 people,” Smith said. “Not everyone was happy last year, it would be crass to deny that, and one consequence is we’ve sold fewer tickets than usual. It’s not great news but we believe that the people who come will like what they see.”

You might think the market for ticket touts would diminish but Ascot is taking no chances and will launch a campaign to warn racegoers about the dangers.

Smith explained: “On Derby day at Epsom, 200 people were turned away with forged tickets. We’ll be putting up posters, alerting people that, if they buy tickets off touts, they may not get the real thing.”

Good news and bad for Ascot’s other summer showpiece, the King George in late July. The much-anticipated challenge by the Japanese duo, Pop Rock and Delta Blues, has been abandoned but there could be a first American contender for three years.

Having finished first and second in the Melbourne Cup last November, the Japanese horses would have been a big draw. Delta Blues, though, has lost his form and connections are refusing to send one without the other.

The American bid could come from Drilling For Oil, trained in Kentucky by Kenny McPeek, who brought Hard Buck to run second to Doyen three years ago. America remains the last frontier so far as the royal meeting’s globalisation is concerned but Australian trainers now seem to target the fixture. The Aussie challenge for the sprints this year is formidable but, in time-honoured fashion, Britain might claim one of them as its own.

Bentley Biscuit is part-owned by George Mooratoff, who not only has an Ascot name to die for but has been a Surrey resident for 15 years. Mooratoff flirted with ownership in Britain but his English wife, Jill, confides: “He finds it less expensive to fly out to Australia first-class than to keep horses here.”

Having narrowly escaped being shut down a few years back, Folkestone is one of the success stories of British racing. On Sunday, Kent’s only course offers an alternative to the glut of Ladies’ days by celebrating Father’s Day. There will even be a Dad’s race, with a free pint to every runner.