THE NAMING AND SPONSORING OF HORSE RACES.

​George Ward started it. He is the villain of this piece. He owned Vistaprint, amongst other companies. He also owned racehorses and as with other successful businessmen with an interest in horse racing, he chose to sponsor races in order to keep his photograph-developing company in the public eye. But Mr. Ward wanted to ‘own’ the races he sponsored, with the company name the sole title in racecards. It was okay, at least with me, when Mackeson, Massey-Ferguson, Hennessey and Whitbread started the rush for companies to sponsor horse racing as the races they injected large amounts of money into barely existed before the day of the sponsor was born. But George Ward demanded control of the race title and since then that is the way it has been. And racing has a more poverty-stricken look and is more confusing because of it.
You see, and, yes, this is another hobby-horse of mine, our sport is multi-faceted, with many nuances for the newcomer to learn and accept before the sport can deliver the satisfaction the true enthusiast derives from the daily game of chance we call horse racing.
Take the big race tomorrow, the Coral Gold Cup. Firstly, the Blue Riband of steeplechasing is the ‘Gold Cup’, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the centre-piece of Royal Ascot is the ‘Gold Cup’, the Ascot Gold Cup. Yet here we have another Gold Cup. To you and everyone else who diligently follows the sport, there is no confusion. This Gold Cup is to be run in November, so it cannot be either of the other two Gold Cups. But to the newbie or a loved-one, when you excitedly announce that it is Coral Gold Cup day tomorrow, the response I would get, someone who lives in a world far removed from racinghot-spots, is ‘oh, it’s not Cheltenham, is it?’ In the outside world, to those with less than a passing knowledge of our sport, the Gold Cup can only mean one race and it is not a race held in Berkshire in November.
Also, it is not really the Coral Gold Cup, is it? It is the Hennessey or the old Hennessey, as the last big handicap of the season will always be the old Whitbread, no matter how many companies have sponsored the race since the sad day when it stopped being its historic title.
I am in way downplaying the importance of sponsorship in our sport. In fact, the sponsoring of races from the ordinary fare to the Blue Riband races is more than important, it is vital due to the antiquated system we have in Britain for funding the sport.
And, yes, I know the big races have ‘registered names’ but how often do they appear in the race-title, and how quickly is someone corrected by journalist or presenter when the sponsors name is omitted from the ‘registered’ name? Super-quick, I would suggest.
So here is my best suggestion for tidying-up a problem only I seem to believe is a problem. Take tomorrow’s big race, the old Hennessey. Why not this: the Newbury Gold Cup Handicap Chase, presented to you by Coral Bookmakers – followed by whatever slogan they would choose to use. 
The race would have a name that would chime down the ages, the sponsor is seen to be gifting the race to racegoers and they get a description of what, not that this applies to Coral, they manufactured or sell. If Alf Bloggs was sponsoring the race it might say ‘Alf Bloggs’, your High Street Rolls Royce dealership.
Because to be fair, I have little idea what either Turners or Boodles manufacture or sell.
To add weight to my point. At the last Cheltenham Festival, the ‘Turners’ was a novice chase, this year it is a novice hurdle. Would it not be neater if whatever race Turners sponsor this time around became the Spa Hurdle, presented to you by Turners, manufacturers (or purveyors) of ….
Cheltenham then would be consistent down the ages, the Gloucester Hurdle, The Spa Hurdle, the Cirencester Hurdle, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, presented to you by …. Insert name of your choice.
To those of a similar age to myself, would it not be nostalgically nice to have returned to the sport the Gainsborough Chase, the Great Yorkshire, as we did last year, for one year only, I suspect, and the Bula Hurdle?