Cheltenham Festival suffers fresh financial blow after Gold Cup sponsor Magners drops out just 36 days before prestigious race
Cheltenham has been hit with another financial body blow after sponsors Magners pulled out of backing next month’s Cheltenham Festival and sponsoring the centrepiece Gold Cup.
The announcement came just 36 days before the race.
A Jockey Club spokesman said: ‘The brand will no longer be promoted at the Festival.’
Magners pulled out of backing the Cheltenham Festival and sponsoring the Gold Cup
Magners did not respond to a request for comment but staging the 2020 meeting against a backdrop of the developing Covid-19 pandemic attracted negative publicity.
Racemail revealed in November that Magners would not take up their option to sponsor the 2022 Gold Cup but on Thursday came the even earlier severing of the sponsorship as Jockey Club Racecourses announced the Cheltenham-based charity WellChild would have their name alongside the blue riband event at the four-day Festival.
The organisation is a national charity which helps sick children and their families.
It is a magnanimous gesture by Cheltenham’s owners, who hope to build brand awareness for a charity which has lost 60 per cent of its income during the pandemic.
With no replacement backer yet announced for the Derby at Epsom after Investec pulled out last year, two of Britain’s biggest three races — the exception being the Randox Grand National — are without a sponsor, a headache for Jockey Club Racecourses, which faced a £90million loss in revenue last year.
Meanwhile, Newbury will reschedule Saturday’s Denman Chase meeting for a week on Sunday if it fails this morning’s inspection.
