William Hill takes title sponsorship of St Leger Festival

Agreeing to terms with racecourse operator Arena Racing Company (ARC), William Hill will become the new title sponsor of the St Leger Festival, a heritage event for UK racing stakeholders.

Signing a three-year deal, the four-day festival will now be rebranded as ‘The William Hill St Leger Festival’ (13-16 September).

Further to its sponsorship, William Hill has boosted the prize pool for the St Leger Stakes, the world’s oldest Classic horserace to £700,000. 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)
• The William Hill Portland Stakes on the finale, alongside the William Hill St Leger Stakes on the final day (Saturday)

William Hill CEO, Philip Bowcock, commented on the festival sponsorship: “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.

In 2016, the St Leger Festival was attended by over 60,000 racegoers, this year’s edition will receive terrestrial coverage on the ITV1 channel with additional broadcasts on ITV4 for Ladies’ Day and Gentlemen’s Day.

Chief Executive of ARC, Martin Cruddace, welcomed William Hill as St Ledger partners: “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.”