Betfair to back St Leger

Betfair have been announced as new sponsors of the St Leger at Doncaster, England, next month.

This year’s renewal of the world’s oldest Classic will be known as the betfair.com St Leger and will be worth a total of £400,000 (€598,683).

The race is the 228th in the St Leger’s long history and will be run on Saturday, September 11.

As part of the deal, the betting exchange will also sponsor the Group Two May Hill Stakes, one of the leading races of the year for juvenile fillies, on the Thursday of the four-day St Leger Festival.

John Sanderson, Doncaster’s chief executive, said: “We are delighted to welcome the world’s largest betting exchange as sponsor of the 2004 betfair.com St Leger and betfair.com May Hill Stakes.

“The company has revolutionised modern-day betting and we are thrilled they have recognised the importance of the world’s oldest Classic by choosing it for their highest-profile racing sponsorship to date.”

Josh Apiafi, director of field marketing at Betfair, said: “This is a significant step for Betfair in terms of our horseracing sponsorship programme and to be associated with the St Leger is a great thrill for us.

“We are looking forward to what will be an excellent and competitive four days’ racing culminating in the betfair.com St Leger on Saturday.”

Last season’s St Leger was backed on a one-off basis by the makers of the successful movie Seabiscuit.