Goodwood racecourse "announced a new ten-year partnership with Qatar, which will be the single biggest sponsorship deal in British racing history," according to Neil Gardner of the LONDON TIMES. The deal with the emirate "will see Glorious Goodwood rebranded as the Qatar Goodwood Festival and become one of the most significant and valuable meetings in the world." More than £3M ($4.7M) "will be invested into the prize money for eight significant races, with a commitment to increase prize money year-on-year." Races to benefit from the influx of cash include the Qatar Sussex Stakes -- which will carry a purse of £1M ($1.7M), compared to £300,000 ($469,000) this year -- and the Qatar Nassau Stakes which will be worth £600,000 ($936,000) (LONDON TIMES, 12/22). The CHICHESTER OBSERVER reported each Group 2 feature race, the Qatar Lennox Stakes (Tuesday), the Qatar Goodwood Cup (Thursday) and the Qatar King George Stakes (Friday) are now worth £300,000, "recognising their recent records for attracting some of the best horses at their respective distances." In addition, Qatar "has guaranteed that if any current Group 2 race achieves Group 1 status, the prize money will rise" to at least £500,000 ($780,000) (CHICHESTER OBSERVER, 12/22). BBC Racing Correspondent Cornelius Lysaght said, "The influence of Qatar on British sport grows ever greater, particularly in racing where members of the ruling Al Thani family are already major racehorse owners and financial backers. While this sort of sponsorship is obviously welcome, such is the level of Qatari support for racing now that sceptics are bound to start wondering about too many eggs in one basket" (BBC, 12/22).
BUILDING PROFILE: In London, Natalie Mortimer wrote Goodwood Managing Dir Adam Waterworth said that "a key driver for striking the sponsorship is to help Goodwood up its profile globally, but insisted that the brand will not change." Waterworth said, "The world is a much smaller place now. … Global competition is important increasingly in racing and this was about us putting our marker down that we still are a player globally not just in west Sussex. [But] I don’t think it changes the brand. What’s important to us is that it takes that week [of horse racing] on to a completely different level and it should take that week onto a global platform.” Waterworth said that the partnership will also help improve facilities at the racecourse itself, which will be carried out in "GoodWood style" (THE DRUM, 12/22). The CHICHESTER OBSERVER reported in a separate piece the racing industry reacted "to news of Goodwood
racecourse’s ten-year megabucks deal with Qatar." British Champions
Series Ltd. Chair Chris McFadden said, “This new and significant investment in the Sussex
Stakes is an extremely positive development for the QIPCO British
Champions Series." Champion trainer Richard Hannon said, “This
new Qatari sponsorship is absolutely fantastic news for British
horseracing and in particular Goodwood. The sponsorship demonstrates the
attraction commercially that Horseracing in this country holds." British Horseracing Authority Chair Steve
Harman said, “This
announcement is great news for British Racing and for Goodwood. Qatar
and the U.K. have a long and strong history -- Qatar has become one of the
U.K.’s biggest trade partners" (CHICHESTER OBSERVER, 12/22).
