Simon Durrant, General Manager of Kempton Park Racecourse, said: “The Christmas period is synonymous with competitive and compelling sport and British racing has a number of well established and popular meetings for racegoers and fans watching on TV to enjoy.
Last year the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase grabbed the sports headlines with its four-way photo finish and the changes outlined today help the sport build on such thrilling drama.
By working together with the racing industry on this we hope to boost the prominence of each of the major events taking place over this period and create an exciting focal point for each day.
We’re grateful to everyone involved for their collaboration and looking forward to working with ITV Racing and our sponsors, Ladbrokes, to promote this new concept.”
Corporate partners indicated that the revamped schedule serves a vital economic purpose amid shifting regulatory pressures within the domestic sporting market.
Simon Clare, Entain UK PR Director, said: “The festive racing period is of huge commercial importance to British racing and Britain’s bookmakers, and by working constructively with our racecourse partners, the BHA and ITV Racing, we have created a four-day Christmas Racing programme that gives each premier race meeting the spotlight it deserves and delivers a stronger and more compelling narrative for racing fans, racegoers and betting customers.
It will also deliver much-needed increased returns to all parties at a time when Racing revenues are under major pressure and bookmakers are facing into heavy tax rises and increased regulation.
We are very proud to be sponsoring the major races and meetings that make-up this new four-day programme, and extremely grateful for the willingness of our racecourse partners to embrace the fixture changes, and for the support of ITV racing without which this new programme could not have happened.”
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The British Horseracing Authority confirmed that ticket and hospitality holders for the affected fixtures will be contacted directly regarding the updated scheduling details.
