Posted on 28 November 2011.
Leopardstown receives Boylesports.com sponsorship boost.
Boylesports.com and Leopardstown racecourse have signed a major three-year sponsorship deal. The new deal will see Boylesports.com become the title sponsor for the opening day of the Leopardstown ‘January Jumps Weekend’ on the 28 of January 2012. In addition, Boylesports.com is offering the potential of €150,000 worth of bonuses each year should any horse complete the Leopardstown and Cheltenham Festival double.
As part of the sponsorship agreement, the Irish firm will take up the sponsorship of the Grade B Boylesports.com Hurdle. They will also provide a cash bonus of €100,000 to the winner should they go on to win at the Cheltenham Festival like Final Approach did last year. Furthermore, Boylesports.com will also sponsor the Grade 2 Novice Steeplechase and give €50,000 to the winner of that race if they too succeed at the March Cheltenham extravaganza.
Announcing the sponsorship, Leon Blanche, Boylesports Head of PR, said:
“We are absolutely thrilled and excited with this sponsorship deal at Leopardstown. This three year agreement underlines Boylesports commitment to Irish racing. We are actively working to increase our portfolio of quality sponsorships in Ireland and delighted to have the Boylesports.com Hurdle on our list”.
Champion Trainer Willie Mullins said:
“The Boylesports.com Handicap Hurdle is one of the most prestigious handicaps in Ireland and we would always target a number of our runners at it. We were fortunate enough to win it last year with Final Approach and hope we can do the double again this year and target the €100,000 bonus that Boylesporst.com have so generously made available for any horse that goes on to win at the Cheltenham Festival”.
Ciaran Conroy Commercial Manager at Leopardstown said:
“We are delighted to welcome Boylesports to Leopardstown as the new sponsor of the prestigious Boylesports.com Hurdle. This race has always been regarded as one of the most exciting and hotly contested races in the National Hunt calendar. We look forward to partnering with the Boylesports team over the next three years and making this event into a great success”.
Posted on 27 November 2011.
Record amount raised at O’Sullivan Award Lunch.
This year's Peter O’Sullevan Award Lunch , the fifteenth , raised a record of just over £250,000 boosted by some enthusiastic auction bidding from the formidable Irish contingent.
This tremendous news was welcomed by the six charities supported by the Trust at a time when funds are so urgently needed.
Having received the much coveted O’Sullevan Award for a lifetime contribution to racing, JP McManus himself, went to £80,000 to outbid rivals for a round of golf with Lee Westwood. The great man was present to hand over the valuable envelope.
Dermot Desmond went to £65,000 to secure a brilliant Peter Curling cartoon featuring McManus "cleaning out the bookmakers" - a Curling masterpiece.
Coolmore paid £22,000 for Terence Gilbert’s painting of Her Majesty The Queen’s visit to the stud earlier this year and the ever popular luxury Dubai World Cup package went to Danny Egan on the Ffos Las table, for £18,000.
The Johnny Jonas portrait of the award winner was acquired by JP’s son John for £20,000 and owner Andy Stewart invested £10,000 in a lunch with Joanna Lumley at Murano.
Barbados-based Derrick Smith paid the same amount for a pair of beautiful photographic montages by Royal Photogapher Bernard Parkin. A collection of Dick Francis first editions was purchased by Mark Kershaw for £7000 and a luxury package for 6 to the 2012 John Smith’s Grand National went for £6000 to Hector Browne.
The nine lots were knocked down by Goffs Nick Nugent for a total of £238,000.
Subsequent donations at the Lunch took the total to just over the quarter of a million mark and in it’s 15 year history the Trust has now raised over £3 million for six welfare concerns it supports: Blue Cross, The Brooke, Compassion in World Farming, Racing Welfare, The Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre and World Horse Welfare.
Posted on 21 November 2011.
Stewart Family to Sponsor Cheltenham December Gold Cup.
Cheltenham Racecourse is delighted to announce that the £100,000 December Gold Cup, one of the highlights of The International on Saturday, December 10, will this year be run as the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup.
The Stewart Family is sponsoring the high-profile two mile, five furlong Grade Three handicap chase to help raise awareness of Adam Wolley, Greg Symondson and twins Hugo and Ross Turner, who are aiming to raise £150,000 for the charity Spinal Research by rowing across the Atlantic Ocean.
Adam, Greg, Hugo and Ross, who met while studying at Loughborough University, are due to set off from the Canary Islands on December 4, with the aim of rowing some 3,000 miles before arriving in Barbados in February, 2012.
In the process, the team hopes to become the youngest four-man crew to row across any ocean in the world, with Hugo and Ross also bidding to be the first twins to cross an ocean in this way.
As well as generously backing the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup, any of the Stewart Family’s runners in the race will run in aid of Spinal Research, with all prize money won going to the charity.
The Stewart Family’s likely runners this year include the Paul Nicholls-trained Poquelin, who has won the two previous renewals of the December Gold Cup and was runner-up over the same course and distance in the Grade One Ryanair Chase at The Festival in March, 2010.
Poquelin’s stable companion Ghizao, runner-up in the Grade One Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree in April, could also line up alongside the Richard Rowe-trained Tatenen and Nomecheki, from the stable of Nick Gifford.
Discussing the family’s decision to sponsor the race, Andy Stewart commented:
“This is a cause close to my heart and a high-profile sponsorship seemed a great opportunity to help promote such a tremendous fundraising challenge.
“I hope to have four horses in the race. We have won it for the past two years with Poquelin and he will return to Cheltenham. He’s gone down a couple of pounds for unseating in the Paddy Power Gold Cup but he’s still rated 168 and will keep the weights down for the rest of the field.
“I spoke to Ghizao’s part-owner David Johnson at Ascot on Saturday and I imagine he will also go for the race and will probably be the preferred mount of Ruby Walsh.
“I also intend to run Tatenen and probably Nomecheki, who will either go for the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup or head to Aintree for the Sefton Handicap Chase (December 3) to see whether he is a potential Grand National horse or not.
“I'm hoping that we can highlight the great work of Spinal Research and help raise a significant sum for the charity.”
One of Andy's sons, Paul, suffered a severe spinal injury in a snowboarding accident in December, 2008. He was paralysed from the waist down and initially told by doctors that he would never walk again.
However, pioneering treatment in the UK and in Miami has seen Paul make a remarkable recovery and he is trying to be part of Great Britain’s swimming team at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Spinal Research is the UK's leading charity funding medical research around the world to develop reliable treatments for paralysis caused by a broken back or neck.
Every year more than 800 people in the UK and Ireland are paralysed following an injury to their spinal cord. Spinal Research raises money to fund research into clinical treatments as well as vital basic scientific research.
Thanks to this work, the treatment of paralysis is improving all the time and various therapies can now, in some cases, help restore movement and feeling, in the process transforming the lives of paralysed people.
Posted on 09 November 2011.
Fairyhouse to sponsor Nina Carberry.
Fairyhouse Racecourse today announced sponsorship of Ladbrokes Irish Grand National-winning jockey, Nina Carberry. The 12-month deal will see Nina wearing Fairyhouse branded racing clothes in both Ireland and the UK. Nina will also work with the racecourse to promote race meetings throughout the year.
Peter Roe, General Manager Fairyhouse Racecourse commented:
“We are thrilled to announce our sponsorship of Nina Carberry. Nina has always been a supporter of Fairyhouse and is a wonderful ambassador for racing. She is a well-known figure in the world of sport and is really enthusiastic about her association with her local racecourse. Nina will be involved in our marketing and PR campaigns including social networking, helping to promote our feature meetings starting with our Premier Jump Racing Weekend on Saturday 03 and Sunday 04 December. We have also commissioned a cartoon caricature of Nina which hopefully will appeal to the younger audience and help attract some new fans to the sport.”
Commenting on her new role, Nina Carberry said:
“I am honoured to be sponsored by Fairyhouse Racecourse. I have been coming to Fairyhouse since I was a child. It is my local track and the scene of many happy celebrations for me and my family. Winning the Ladbrokes Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse last April was the highlight of my career. This is a fantastic sponsorship and I am really looking forward to working with the team at Fairyhouse to promote the racecourse and their top-class race meetings.”
Posted on 04 November 2011.
New sponsors for Cheltenham Open Meeting.
Cheltenham Racecourse today announced Shloer and Opus Energy as two valuable new sponsors for The Open, the eagerly-awaited Autumn Jump racing meeting, which takes place from Friday, November 11, to Sunday, November 13.
Shloer, the popular sparkling juice drink, is to back the £45,000 Shloer Steeplechase on Sunday, November 13. Opus Energy, the leading independent supplier of gas and electricity to the business sector, is backing the £21,500 Grade Two Opus Energy Novices' Hurdle on Friday, November 11.
One of the highlights of Sunday's card, the Shloer Steeplechase gives the leading two mile-chasers their first opportunity of the season to take each other on in a conditions race that has rapidly established itself as a key contest.
The first two runnings of this race produced plenty of thrills, with Well Chief beating Master Minded in 2009 and Gauvain taking the honours last year, and there is much to look forward to in this season's renewal.
Karen Salters, Director of SHS Group, the owners of the Shloer brand, said:
"Everyone at Shloer is excited that we are getting involved in such an exciting sport. Our brand has been around for over 70 years, but has been reinvigorated recently and is going from strength to strength. I'm sure that the Shloer Steeplechase will give us valuable exposure to a new set of potential customers and we are looking forward to a great race next weekend."
The novices' hurdle, which is being sponsored by Opus Energy, has long been a pointer to future stars of the sport, with Loosen My Load winning the race in 2009 and the 2010 renewal going the way of Cue Card, one of the most exciting young jump horses around.
Charlie Crossley Cooke, Managing Director of Opus Energy, said:
"We are a relatively young company, having formed in 2002, but we have gained a reputation for developing innovative energy solutions and excellent customer service. Cheltenham is widely known as being one of the best racecourses in the world, so it seemed a natural partner for us in our first foray of racing sponsorship. I'm confident that the Opus Energy Novices' Hurdle will again unearth some stars of the future and also help to get the Opus Energy name known by a wider audience."
Rebecca Morgan, Cheltenham's Commercial Manager, said:
"We are delighted to welcome two such strong brands as new sponsors at the home of Jump racing. With both races being shown live on Channel4 Racing and both teams being committed to working with us to maximise their exposure to a new audience, I am confident that both Shloer and Opus Energy will soon become well known brands to Jump racing's large supporter base. It is a welcome boost to have new supporters for these valuable and important races, especially at such a challenging time for the sport."