Posted on 26 October 2011.
Ladbrokes.com complete Euro 1 million deal with Punchestown.
In exciting news for Irish racing, Punchestown and Ladbrokes today announced a new three year sponsorship deal for races worth over €1 million. The agreement will see Ladbrokes.com take over title sponsorship of the Punchestown Winter Festival as well as extending their support of the Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle at the Irish National Hunt Festival.
The announcement means that for the next three years a total of five races will carry the Ladbrokes.com title at the two day fixture in November. The feature of the Ladbrokes.com Winter Festival is the Grade 1 Ladbrokes.com Morgiana Hurdle, a race that attracts past, current and potential champion hurdle contenders. The impressive list of previous winners includes Hardy Eustace, Brave Inca, Harchibald, Moscow Flyer and Limestone Lad. Both the grade 2 Craddockstown and Florida Pearl novice chases are also incorporated into the deal.
Ladbrokes also announced their continued commitment to the Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle at the Punchestown National Hunt Festival. The deal will see Ladbrokes.com continue their sponsorship until the 2014 Festival and their support of the race to a total of seven consecutive years. Irish Champion trainer Willie Mullins, who has won the race four times, most recently with the top class mare Quevega welcomed the news by saying
“The continued commitment by Ladbrokes.com to Irish racing is of huge value. Both the Ladbrokes.com Morgiana and World Series Hurdles will be key races for us this season and we look forward to seeing the Ladbrokes.com Winter Festival becoming an early season highlight”.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Joe Lewins, Managing Director, Ladbrokes.com Ireland, said:
“This is a significant investment for Ladbrokes Ireland and a further example of our commitment to Irish sport. We already have a strong partnership with Punchestown, they have an extremely hard working and talented team so we’re looking forward to working with them in making the Ladbrokes.com Winter Festival a leading national hunt meeting not to be missed”.
Punchestown General Manager, Dick O’Sullivan said
“Ladbrokes.com have been great supporters of Punchestown and we are very pleased with this latest initiative. Their investment in the Ladbrokes.com Winter festival will bring a welcome rejuvenation to the fixture. Over the next three years we intend to build this event and aim to produce an early season highlight. We certainly have the quality of racing and now with the Ladbrokes.com support we can work together to create a real pre-Christmas showcase of jump racing.
“We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ladbrokes.com for their continued support of the festival. It goes without saying that major title sponsors of this quality are hard to come by these days and festival Thursday will continue to thrive with their support.”
Betfair sponsor special races at Towcester.
BETFAIR today announce a sponsorship deal which will see two newly-designed races being run at Towcester, with the sole purpose of supporting the production of steeplechasers emanating from the British point-to-point scene.
The two Betfair-sponsored races, which will carry a prize money fund of £5,000 per race, will take place on Thursday November 3rd and Sunday November 20th 2011.
These will be novice hurdle races and will be confined to novices of four years old and upwards, which have not won more than three hurdle races and which have run at least once in a point to point steeple chase in Great Britain.
Betfair spokesman Tony Calvin commented:
“We see this as an opportunity to help stimulate commercial interest in British-produced point-to-point horses. We believe they are every bit as good in quality as their Irish counterparts.
“By introducing these races at Towcester, a course that complements this type of young horse, we hope to promote the grass roots of the sport by giving potential steeplechasers the opportunity to progress through the system.”
Posted on 24 October 2011.
Bet 365 extend sponsorship at Wetherby.
bet365 and Wetherby Racecourse are pleased to announce that bet365 will continue to support the Charlie Hall Chase Meeting at Wetherby for a further three years, up to and including the 2014 renewal of the race.
The Stoke-based firm sponsors five races at the two-day meeting (Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29) with three of those among seven competitive contests on bet365 Charlie Hall Chase Day, including the meeting’s feature event, the £100,000 Grade Two bet365 Charlie Hall Chase.
This year’s bet365 Charlie Hall Chase has today attracted a fantastic 14-strong entry that includes such star chasers as Time For Rupert, Nacarat, Diamond Harry and Midnight Chase.
bet365, one of the world’s leading online gambling groups with over six million customers in 200 countries, has supported the feature race of Wetherby’s season since 2003 and the three mile, one furlong, contest has been won by some of the top staying chasers in recent years.
bet365 Joint Chief Executive Denise Coates commented:
“The bet365 Charlie Hall Chase represents the first major test of the season for the country’s leading staying chasers and we have seen some truly outstanding performers triumph since we started sponsoring the race in 2003.
“This season looks set to be yet another top quality affair and I am looking forward to bet365 continuing our support of Wetherby’s premier meeting for the next three years.”
Wetherby Racecourse Chief Executive Jonjo Sanderson added:
"Wetherby has enjoyed a fantastic relationship with bet365 over the last nine years and we are delighted that bet365 have extended their support of the bet365 Charlie Hall Meeting once again. We very much look forward to working together up to 2014 and beyond."
Posted on 06 October 2011.
William Hill renew Turf TV Contract.
William Hill has today become the first major company to renew its agreement with Amalgamated Racing Ltd (AMRAC) for the provision of Turf TV.
The early renewal of the long-term contract with Turf TV will allow William Hill to show Turf TV’s exclusive 'through-the-card' live coverage of every horse race meeting from 31 of the 59 British racecourses in all of its 2,370 betting shops.
Ralph Topping, CEO for William Hill, said:
“’We are the first major bookmaker to renew a long term deal with Turf TV. This agreement will ensure that, over the next few years, our customers will be able to watch quality racing from some of Britain’s best racecourses, when having a bet with the UK’s best bookmaker.”
AMRAC Managing Director Adrian Ford said:
“I am delighted that William Hill has once again demonstrated its support for quality British horseracing. Turf TV will continue to be a core part of the William Hill presentation for years to come which is great news for punters and horse racing alike. Clearly we are delighted that William Hill, a market-leading operator, has recognised the importance of Turf TV to the High Street punter and contracted with us well ahead of our renewal date.”
Posted on 05 October 2011.
Three Quarter Million Boost to All Weather Programme.
Arena Leisure has today announced a prize-money boost of three quarters of a million pounds to the race programmes at Lingfield Park, Wolverhampton and Southwell during the forthcoming All-Weather Winter Season which runs from Wednesday, 09 November, 2011 to Friday, March 30, 2012.
Ian Renton, Director of Racing at Arena Leisure, expressed his delight today saying:
"I am very pleased that Arena Leisure is able to offer this considerable uplift to the prize money for the All-Weather Winter Season, enabling us to reinstate a significant number of higher quality races to our winter programme. We hope the new programme provides the opportunities that owners and trainers are seeking this winter and we would like to thank the Betting Industry and the Levy Board for their assistance towards the increase in prize money."
As a result of this financial boost, the Winter Derby at Lingfield Park on Saturday, March 24, 2012, will be the richest race of the season with prize money of £100,000 and the Winter Derby Trial in February, 2012, will be re-instated as a Listed race.
Also back in place are the All-Weather Championships, the popular Jockeys' Championship, and a new Owners and Trainers' Championship, together with various loyalty schemes and incentives.