Friday 16 January 2015

£50k bonus for completing Freebets/Festival double

An online sports betting service is dangling a juicy £50k carrot in front of connections whose horse can complete a Cheltenham trials day/Festival double this spring. 

The horse who manages to win the £50,000 Grade Three 2m 5f Freebets.com handicap chase at Cheltenham's Festival trials day at the end of January will earn a further £50,000 bonus if it manages to go on and win any race at the Festival six weeks later.

The bonus would be split so that £40,000 goes to the winning horse's owners, £5,000 to the trainer and £5,000 to the yard.

Iain Coward, managing director of Freebets' parent company Biggerbet Ltd, said: "it could prove costly for us, but nonetheless we hope it adds even further to the excitement of the Festival for all concerned."

  

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Festival sponsorship arrives at the double

An investment firm has teamed up with a fledgling breeding operation to sponsor one of the most fiercely competitive handicap chases at the Cheltenham Festival later this spring.

The Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate takes place on St Patrick's Thursday 12 March 2015. Run last year as the Byrne Group Plate, this is the latest incarnation of the 2m 5f contest first staged in 1951 and known for many years as the Mildmay of Flete Handicap Chase.

The announcement pairs together independent investment firm Brown Advisory with Merriebelle Stable, a US and European equine breeding and racing operation launched in 2012. Sophia Brudenell, communications executive at Cheltenham, said the sponsorship was a one-year deal.

A maximum field of 24 will go to post for this year's race. The David-Pipe-trained Ballynagour, won the 2014 renewal, the third time the West Country trainer has been successful in the contest.