It seems hard to believe that the Global Sprint Challenge will be in just its fifth year in 2010, such is the dimension that the travelling sprinters have brought to Royal Ascot in the short history of the series.

Once again in 2008 a truly international field lined up for both Royal Ascot legs. The newly promoted Group One King's Stand Stakes produced a first victory for Spain with Equiano, who just denied the Australian standard-bearer, Takeover Target, a second win in the race.

A few days later in the Golden Jubilee Stakes Takeover Target ran another tremendous race to finish fourth to Kingsgate Native, bringing his remarkable Ascot record to six first four finishes from six runs. The Golden Jubilee also featured a first runner for New Zealand in the form of Horse of the Year, Seachange, who went on to run at Newmarket's July Festival, finishing a highly creditable fourth to Nahoodh in the Group One UAE Hydra Properties Falmouth Stakes over a mile.

The King's Stand Stakes also saw a second Royal Ascot appearance for Australia's Magnus and a first for South African speedball, National Colour, who was an excellent sixth following a layoff of over a year before going on to run a close second in the Group One Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes in August.

When the Global Sprint Challenge was launched in 2005, the King's Stand Stakes was worth £140,000 and the Golden Jubilee, £250,000. Both have increased in value every year to reflect their growing international significance and I am delighted to be able to write that in 2010, the Golden Jubilee Stakes is up a further £75,000 to £450,000 and the King's Stand Stakes has been increased in value by £50,000 to £300,000. In five years since the inception of the Global Sprint Challenge, prize money for the two Royal Ascot sprints has all but doubled.

With £400,000 on offer for the Darley July Cup, the third European leg of the Challenge, there is well over £1 million on offer across the UK's legs for the world's top sprinters. The July Cup itself has a tremendous international history, stretching back to Agnes World's victory for Japan in 2000, and was won in 2008 by Europe's eventual Champion Sprinter, the Hong Kong-bound, Marchand D'or.

With the committee's intention always to increase incentives for owners and trainers of the world's top horses to travel, the US$1,000,000 bonus pool can now be won by winning any three Group One Challenge legs in any three different countries, the important difference in 2010 being that there is no necessity to run in all four countries.

In another change, the prize pool will be split US$ 750,000 to the owner of the bonus-winning horse, and US$ 250,000 to the trainer.

The series starts once again with the Coolmore Lightning Stakes at Flemington in January, Australia's premier weight for age sprint and the annual springboard to the campaigns of Choisir, Takeover Target and Miss Andretti in their Royal Ascot winning years. In 2008, the Lightning went to Apache Cat, who rattled up a series of Group One wins at home, confirming the status of the race as a launch pad for true champions.

After the Lightning, the series moves to the UK then to Japan, where the most valuable race in the Challenge, the Sprinters Stakes, is staged. Then it's back to Australia for the Patinack Farm Classic before the annual culmination of the programme with the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint, which routinely brings together the best turf sprinters from Europe, Australia and Asia.

We look forward to seeing the world's fastest horses compete across the Challenge in 2010 and to welcoming their connections to Royal Ascot.