Coral launch racing club offering customers free involvement in five horses

Bookmakers Coral are launching what they describe as a "groundbreaking" racing club, with customers sharing the ownership experience of five horses in the care of Jonjo O'Neill, Joe Tizzard, Rebecca Menzies and Scott Dixon.

The Coral Racing Club will be open to all customers to join for free and will feature prize draws for owners' badges and the chance to share in any prize-money won.

Club members will also be able to enter ballots for free tickets to major racedays sponsored by Coral, including the Welsh and Scottish Grand Nationals and the Eclipse, as well as exclusive stable visits.

Director of public relations Simon Clare said the launch of the club marked the most significant investment in the promotion of racing and ownership by any bookmaker in Britain.

Clare said: "The Coral Racing Club is the only free-to-join racehorse ownership experience in the UK and our ambition is to make it the biggest and best racing club, getting thousands of our customers closer to the action than ever before, and in doing so helping to broaden the appeal of the sport.

Coral's sposnoship of the Welsh Grand National is one of the longets commercial partnerships in British racingCredit: Pool

"Bookmakers have been accused of not promoting racing enough, or prioritising other products like football. But in launching the Coral Racing Club, on top of doubling our investment in racing sponsorship, we are doing more to grow the appeal of racing, and promote the sport, than any betting operator has ever done before."

Coral have added to their racing sponsorship portfolio in the last 12 months, signing deals to become the exclusive betting partners at Glorious Goodwood and Doncaster's St Leger Meeting as well as taking over title rights to the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury.

The Jonjo O'Neill-trained Annie Mc has carried the Coral colours in each of the last four seasons and will be joined by a second horse in training at Jackdaws Castle, as well as Conservative, trained by Dixon, the Menzies-inmate Lady Mendoza and a four-year-old Westerner gelding in training with Tizzard, who will be named by club members.

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