the power of sponsorship.

​I have little idea how racecourses set about finding sponsors. I dare say when one sponsor announces the end of its support for one the major races, the marketing division of a racecourse frantically sets about to find a replacement sponsor. I doubt, in these financially stringent times, sponsors are queuing up to sponsor horse racing, especially as we are not as woke as the lilywhites would want us to be.
In Britain, we rely heavily on bookmakers to put-up the majority of the prize-money for both the lesser and increasingly our top-flight races, both flat and National Hunt. In Ireland, I notice, local companies are more frequently seen with their names associated with races, with anyone from engineering companies, local hotels and pubs, to local oil companies, stepping-up to the plate, than similar small businesses in this country. Perhaps Irish racecourses remain more closely allied to its local communities than over here.
I suggest the marketing division of racecourses should remind potential backers of the sport of the power of sponsorship. The long-distance handicap chase run at Sandown on the last day of the National Hunt season remains to this day in the memory of racing people as ‘The Whitbread’, even though the brewery withdrew its sponsorship a very long time ago. The handicap chase at Newbury run in November, now run as the Coral Trophy (?) is still referred to many racing people as the ‘old Hennessey’, the instigators of the race back in the late 1950’s.
On this day in 1987, followers of National Hunt racing were disappointed when Schweppes announced they would no longer sponsor the hurdle race at Newbury known as the Schweppes Gold Trophy. Thirty-seven-years later the 2-mile handicap hurdle, now sponsored by Betfair, remains entrenched in racing’s consciousness as ‘the Schweppes’.
The popularity of National Hunt is due to companies like Whitbread, Hennessey and Schweppes seeing horse racing sponsorship as good business-sense and perhaps value for money. Until Bill Whitbread sponsored the race at Sandown, flat racing for hundreds of years far out-sung the winter game and was considered far more popular with the racing public. National Hunt, apart from the Grand National and from the sixties onwards the Cheltenham Festival, only existed to fill the cold and snowy void between November and March.
The Schweppes Gold Trophy began in 1963, at Aintree. It’s history was shorter than either the Whitbread and the Hennessey, ending in 1987, though I suspect its impact was just as significant as hurdle racing was at the time only a stepping stone to horses jumping fences and carried far less esteem with the public. The Schweppes changed all that and attracted some of the best hurdlers of the age, including its best winner, Persian War.
Well-handicapped horses could take the prize, too and in all its guises it has remained one of the most competitive races in the calendar. In 1982, and for all younger enthusiasts who think Ruby Walsh has no peers, or Richard Dunwoody or A.P. McCoy, this is a race that should be not only watched but studied. John Francome put up 4Ibs overweight (wouldn’t be countenanced today by modern trainers) on the free-going Donegal Prince. Anyone who list their top-three National Jockeys and does not include John Francome needs to have their brains washed. The horse fought for his head, was taken on and passed several times, never looked like the winner after the last as David Goulding brought Ekbalco with a perfectly-timed run and yet Francome, defying Peter O’Sullevan’s race-call, got back up on the line to win. A tour-de-force of a ride, deserving of a great race.
Has Newbury asked whoever now owns the Schweppes brand to return as sponsors? Has it been mentioned to them of the power of sponsorship; that 40-years since they ended their commercial sponsorship of the race, the name Schweppes remains associated with the race? Schweppes not only had their name in the race title, they also produced calendars that hung in pubs, betting shops and elsewhere for twelve-months of the year but also owned a couple of racehorses bearing their name. It would be too much to ask for a similar commitment to the sport but they might be arm-twisted by flattery and marketing persuasion to return as sponsors when Betfair decide to put their money elsewhere. Perhaps.
Of course, last year would have been 60th anniversary of the race. That would have been the year for the return of Schweppes. But, still, I would love to have Schweppes return as sponsors of the iconic handicap hurdle, the race that made handicap hurdles cool.
One final point on this subject. This does not apply to Whitbread, Hennessey or the Schweppes sponsorship as their races did not exist until they were inaugurated under their company names. But as soon as a sponsor announces it will no longer sponsor a race that has always bore its name and until a new sponsor is found, the race no longer exists as it has no name. Since originally voicing my ire on this subject, races are now given registered names, though that ‘official’ name is never referenced in the race title. In the U.S. a race might be the ‘Highlight Stakes’ (made it up as U.S. racing does not float my boat) brought to you by ….. add in sponsor’s name. So why not the Grand National brought to you by Randox Health? The Newbury Handicap Hurdle brought to you by Betfair. Or the XXX handicap hurdle brought to you by Local Engineering, for all your (listing what is the core product of the company)?