William Hill agree three-year deal with ARC to sponsor the St Leger Festival at Doncaster Racecourse including the world’s oldest Classic horserace
Today, Arena Racing Company (“ARC”) announces that William Hill is the new sponsor of the St Leger Stakes, the world’s oldest Classic horserace.
The three-year deal sees William Hill sponsor the Group 1 St Leger Stakes, worth £700,000 this year, along with a feature race each day of the four-day festival which will be known as ‘The William Hill St Leger Festival’ and run from Wednesday 13 September to Saturday 16 September 2017.
Alongside the feature race, William Hill will sponsor the following races;
· The William Hill Handicap on the opening day of the Festival (Wednesday);
· The William Hill May Hill Stakes on Ladies’ Day (Thursday);
· The William Hill Mallard Stakes on Gentlemen’s Day (Friday); and
· The William Hill Portland Stakes on the finale, alongside the William Hill St Leger Stakes on the final day (Saturday).
In 2016, the St Leger Festival was attended by over 60,000 racegoers. In 2017, terrestrial coverage of the William Hill St Leger Stakes day will be on the ITV 1 channel with coverage on ITV4 for Ladies’ Day and Gentlemen’s Day.
New St Leger Festival sponsor, William Hill was the first betting company to sponsor a major horserace in 1957. Today, William Hill is sponsor of the Ayr Gold Cup, Great St. Wilfrid at Ripon, Scottish Super Sprint at Musselburgh and is also the broadcast sponsor for all of ITV’s horseracing coverage.
William Hill CEO, Philip Bowcock, said: “William Hill is one of the best known brands in betting – with a long history of horseracing sponsorship. We are delighted to sponsor the oldest classic and we will work closely with ARC to continue to build the profile and popularity of the William Hill St Leger Festival.”
Chief Executive of ARC, Martin Cruddace, said: “We are delighted William Hill have become the new sponsors of the St Leger. We really enjoy working with their team and look forward to extending this to our feature racing festival of the year. William Hill have the brand, vision and team to help build on the success of both the four-day festival and the feature race, the St Leger, which continues to be one of the most important races in the British Racing calendar.”
Executive Director of Doncaster Racecourse, Tim Banfield, said “The William Hill St Leger Festival is a wonderful four days of racing for Doncaster, the Yorkshire region and the whole of British Racing. We aim to have a real and long-term partnership with all our sponsors and we look forward to integrating William Hill’s world-renowned brand into our feature event. The team here are working hard on preparations for this year’s William Hill St Leger Festival and we are set on delivering another fantastic four days of racing.”
Tickets for the St. Leger Festival are now on sale and can be purchased online at