QIPCO renews with British Champions Series

24 July 2012 | Posted in Sponsorship, Horse Racing, Europe | By Michael Long QIPCO renews with British Champions Series

Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company (QIPCO) has extended its title sponsorship deal with the British Champions Series for a further five years.

The deal, which will kick in from the beginning of next season and run until 2017, will see incremental rises in the prize money offered across the fledgling British horse racing series.

QIPCO, which signed a two-year deal last year, will retain title sponsorship to the whole series, which encompasses 35 of Britain's top flat races, as well as full partnership rights to the series opening at the Guineas Festival at Newmarket, the midway point at the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, and the season-ending finale at the one-year old British Champions Day.

British Champions Day, created specifically for the launch of the British Champions Series last year, is the richest day in British horse racing. It has three non-Group 1 races on the card, and the new deal promises elevated prize money should any of those be upgraded.

According to a release announcing the deal, 'a combination of planned prize money increases and upgrades to all three races could make a UK£4m QIPCO British Champions Day a reality as early as 2016.'

Over the course of its five-year term, the new deal is believed to be worth between UK£2.5 million and UK£4.5 million per year, making it the largest annual sponsorship in British horse racing.

“We are still in the early stages of a journey which we hope will contribute to the overall wellbeing of top level flat racing in this country for many years to come, with the subsequent benefits filtering down to the industry as a whole," said QIPCO chief executive Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani.

“This objective complements our own expanding bloodstock and racing operation, in which we have made a very substantial, ongoing investment and which will continue to be based in the UK."

“Securing a major sponsor is part of virtuous circle of higher prize-money, high quality horses, customer participation and broadcast coverage, all of which safeguards the status of British flat racing, and a five-year deal gives us the time and resource to grow the Series and Day further," explained British Champions Series chief executive Rod Street.