"Royal Ascot is the meeting everyone looks forward to.

There are so many Group 1s and high-class races through the week, it’s one of the main Festivals of the year.

I was lucky enough to ride a winner at Royal Ascot a couple of years ago aboard Born In Bombay in the Britannia Stakes and it was an immense feeling.

It’s great to ride a winner anywhere, but at Royal Ascot with the thousands of people in the stands the atmosphere is intense – when you’re out in front and you hit the line it’s definitely something special.

Looking ahead to this year’s Royal meeting, I’m most excited to ride the filly Blond Me (trained by Andrew Balding) in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes on Tuesday.

She won a Listed race at Goodwood last time she raced, and was second in a Grade 2 over at Belmont Park in the USA last September. She was very consistent last year and looks to be a very nice filly – hopefully she can run a big race.

The start of the Stobart Flat Jockeys Championships has gone pretty well for me so far.

I thought things would take a little while to wind up this season, but luckily I had my boss Andrew Balding to support me and I’ve ridden 13 winners so far since the Championships kicked off at the end of April.

I have been at Kingsclere, Berkshire where Andrew is based since I was a 16-year-old apprentice, and it’s a place where you learn something new there every day.

I am very grateful that he is still loyal to me and, as he continues to get better horses coming in to the yard, I’m lucky to get some very nice rides off him.

Andrew has provided me with nine winners so far this year and, with the support of other trainers, I’m aiming to ride over 100 winners in 2016 and hopefully get a Group 1 (or top level) winner this year.”

Meanwhile, for the first time, every day at Royal Ascot will offer prize money of at least £1 million and none of the 30 races will be run for less than £80,000 (£60,000 in 2015).

Headline increases include:

Prince of Wales’s Stakes - £750,000 from £525,000.

Queen Anne Stakes - £600,000 from £375,000.

Diamond Jubilee Stakes - £600,000 from £525,000.

The remaining five Group One races all increase by £25,000 to £400,000.

The Group Two King Edward VII Stakes and Ribblesdale Stakes increase to “200,000 (from £185,000 and £160,000 respectively).

The Group Two Duke of Cambridge Stakes increases by £40,000 to £175,000.

The Group Two (no penalties) Hardwicke Stakes increases by £25,000 to £225,000.

The Group Two Coventry Stakes increases by £30,000 to £150,000.

Guy Henderson, Chief Executive at Ascot, said: “In making £1 million more prize money available at Royal Ascot, over and above last year’s Total Prize Fund, we are acting to remain as competitive as we can both at home and overseas.

“It is very important to make sure that we keep increasing the minimum threshold for race values at the Royal Meeting and, equally, we need to keep developing our international showpiece events to continue to attract runners from all over the world.

"In 2015, we had 72 European runners from outside the UK and 20 runners came from outside Europe, travelling a total of around 100,000 miles each way between them.”

For more information about the Stobart Flat Jockeys’ Championships please visit GBRaci.ng/championship.