‘Road to Aintree’ bonus launched by Tote and Jockey Club Racecourses

 Horseracing Sponsorship: Tote and the UK’s largest racecourse group, Jockey Club Racecourses, has developed a windfall bonus scheme centred around the John Smith’s Grand National, leading up to the Aintree showpiece in April next year.

 A £250,000 bonus will be awarded to winning connections if the same horse manages to win the totesport Classic Chase at Warwick (15 January 2011), the totesport.com Grand National Trial at Haydock  (19 February 2011) and the John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree (9 April 2011), where totesport is the official betting partner.

The ‘totesport Road to Aintree’ bonus will be split between the owner (60%), trainer (20%), jockey (10%) and stable staff in the winning yard (10%) in an effort to encourage potential Grand National candidates to run in all three races. The winning horse at the 2010 John Smith’s Grand National netted its connections £521,052, so the £250,000 bonus offers a sizeable additional incentive.

In the event that either Warwick or Haydock Park is abandoned, £100,000 will still be up for grabs for any horse that manages to win either the totesport Classic Chase or the totesport.com Grand National trial and then go on to complete a double in the John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree. The bonus will be split between winning connections in the same way.

totepool Director of Racecourse Business, Jason Brautigam, said: “The bonus initiative is another example of our strong partnership with Jockey Club Racecourses and connections now have a real incentive to create history by winning both the Classic Chase and Grand National Trial en route to a crack at the big one at Aintree in April.”

“It’s fantastic for Jockey Club Racecourses to strengthen our partnership with the Tote. The Road to Aintree bonus creates an even stronger incentive to race at Warwick, Haydock Park and Aintree,” said Paul Fisher, Chief Operating Officer for Jockey Club Racecourses. “Hopefully we’ll see a really good head of steam building up to the John Smith’s Grand National.”

The Tote has also signed a two-year deal with Haydock Park Racecourse to sponsor the Haydock Park Gold Cup in February, which will now be known as the totesport.com Grand National Trial (registered as the Haydock Park Gold Cup). As well as the totesport.com Grand National Trial at Haydock Park, the Tote will also sponsor another four races on the card, including the Rendlesham Hurdle, Victor Ludorum Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle and Walrus Hunter Chase.

Notable horses to have won the totesport.com Grand National trial at Haydock Park include Cool Ground, who won the 1992 renewal en route to winning the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup and Party Politics, who won at Haydock Park the year after his Grand National success.
Commented on the Tote sponsorship, Jason Brautigam said:  “This fits in perfectly alongside other races in the Tote’s sponsorship portfolio, including the totesport.com Becher Chase at Aintree, where we are the official betting partner for the John Smith’s Grand National itself.