Doncaster seeking another big-race sponsor after Sky Bet end backing of track's richest chase after 20 years

Doncaster is looking for another big-race sponsor after Sky Bet ended their support of the course's richest chase after 20 years.

The Sky Bet Chase is staged in late January over three miles and was worth £100,000 when Cooper's Cross scored for Sam and Stuart Coltherd last season.

It is the latest major contest for which Doncaster has been left seeking a new backer in recent years.

The course secured support from Betfred for the St Leger after Cazoo pulled out of sponsoring the final Classic, while the Futurity was run under the banner of Kameko in October when Qatar Racing stepped in to take the place of John Dance's collapsed Vertem organisation.

And the Lincoln Handicap has had three different sponsors in the last three years, after Unibet was replaced by SBK and then by Pertemps Network this season.

A Sky Bet spokesman declined to comment on the decision to end their sponsorship of a contest that was run at Southwell in 2006 and 2007 while Doncaster was closed for redevelopment. 

But he pointed out that the bookmaking firm has taken over support of the Peter Marsh Chase card at Haydock on January 20.

It has backed the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham since 2014 and remains committed to its Flat programme, which includes the Sky Bet Ebor, York Stakes and Dash at York as well as the Sky Bet Sunday Series.

The Sky Bet Chase is now set to revert to its former name of the Great Yorkshire Chase. That traditional title was lost from a race which was initially run as the skybet.com Great Yorkshire in the first year of their sponsorship in 2003.

That move was criticised at the time, with former trainer Monica Dickinson telling the Racing Post: "I think it is silly. It is the Great Yorkshire Chase – it is in Yorkshire and it is a great race." 

Nick Rust, then Sky Bet managing director, countered: "If racing is to continue to attract sponsorship investment, sponsors do need to achieve value for money – commercial sponsors aren't simply sponsoring out of some sense of charity."

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