Arena Racing Company (“ARC”) and Newcastle Racecourse are delighted to announce a new multi-year partnership with Betfair for both the Northumberland Plate Festival and Fighting Fifth Hurdle.
The Betfair Northumberland Plate Festival runs for three days between Thursday 27 and Saturday 29 June, with the historic Betfair Exchange Northumberland Plate the feature race, which be broadcast live on ITV 1. The richest two-mile handicap in Europe, the Betfair Exchange Northumberland Plate has been run at Gosforth Park since 1882 and is known locally as the Pitmen’s Derby.
The race was won in 2018 by the Roger Charlton trained Withhold, ridden by Robert Winston and owned by Tony Bloom.
Other feature races run over the three-day meeting include the Group 3 Betfair Exchange Chipchase Stakes and the Group 3 Betfair Exchange Hoppings Stakes, which is staged on the popular Gosforth Park Cup Evening Meeting on the Friday night and celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2019.
In addition to their support of the Northumberland Plate fixture, Betfair will also take headline sponsorship of the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle. Run at the beginning of December over two miles, the race has been won in the last two years by two-time Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’Air.
Executive Director of Newcastle Racecourse, David Williamson, said, “We’re delighted to welcome Betfair on board as the principle partner of two of our feature meetings at Newcastle Racecourse. The Northumberland Plate is a race very much embedded in the history of the area and we look forward to a new era with such a prestigious new sponsor.”
“The Fighting Fifth often attracts some of the top two-mile hurdlers from Britain and Ireland and the clash between Buveur D’Air and Samcro was one of the most anticipated clashes of last season.”
Brand Director for Betfair in Europe, Stephen Mault, commented: ‘’To add such an historic Heritage Handicap like the Northumberland Plate and the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle to our ever evolving and increasing Horseracing sponsorship portfolio clearly outlines our commitment to the sport. Our own heritage is steeped in Horseracing and we strive to give racegoers a very unique experience when they attend a Betfair sponsored race day. That is something we, in conjunction with the team at Newcastle, will be focusing on delivering in the coming weeks and months’’
