High Street department store, Debenhams, will be turning up the fashion stakes at next week’s Cheltenham Festival (March 16 – 19), when they dress the entire Channel 4 Racing presenting team in their finest designs for the four-day extravaganza.
With fashion and horseracing so intrinsically linked, watching the racing is only half the fun and many eyes will be on the presenters and their outfits as they broadcast from the Cotswolds to an audience regularly reaching over 2million per day. Channel 4’s Festival coverage starts daily at 8am with The Morning Line with afternoon action live from 12.30 – 4.20pm. Alice Plunkett and Alastair Down will be at the helm supported by the most popular broadcast team in racing that includes John Francome, seven-time Champion Jockey and author, and one of the most recognisable faces of racing, famously known for his flamboyant hats and attire – John McCririck.
Debenhams PR Manager, Ruth Attridge, commented:
“We are delighted to be dressing the Channel 4 Racing team at one of the nation’s most adored horseracing festivals and look forward to seeing the results achieved by our team of personal shoppers. With fashion and millinery from British designers including Pip Hackett, Jasper Conran and Julien Macdonald, we can’t guarantee you’ll back a winner but you’ll be dressed for the occasion, whether it’s glamour at Royal Ascot or a family day out at Royal Windsor.”
A Channel 4 spokeswoman, added:
“Cheltenham is the pinnacle of the jump racing calendar and one of the best events of the year to attend. We’re delighted that Debenhams have come on board to dress our Channel 4 Racing presenters and look forward to seeing what the team have chosen to wear. Our on-screen graphics have also been re-styling for the prestigious meeting and we hope our loyal and new viewers will benefit and enjoy our coverage.”
· The Festival is one of the most prestigious and highly attended Racing Festivals of the year, with over 200,000 spectators attending the four days.
· This year, The Festival will have added excitement in the form of a showdown between two of the world’s greatest jump racehorses – Kauto Star and Denman. These racing legends will be battling to win the Festival highlight – the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday 19th March at 3.20pm live on Channel 4 – a crown that they have held between them since 2007. Which horse will win? This could prove to be one of the greatest clashes in horseracing history.
Go to stage.britishhorseracing.com/cheltenham-festival/ to find out more!
Press Contacts:
Channel 4: Hannah Walker on 07971 598287 or [email protected]
Debenhams: Ruth Attridge on 020 7529 0172 or [email protected]
Notes for Editors
For more information about British Horseracing and the Cheltenham Festival, please visit our Website or Facebook page:
stage.britishhorseracing.com/cheltenham-festival/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/British-Horseracing/75128932431
About The Cheltenham Festival
The Cheltenham Festival produces an atmosphere that is unique – the combination of the huge crowds, the amazing setting and the sense that you are watching history being made produces a sporting cocktail like no other. During the week, over 200,000 people will experience The Festival in person, many of them travelling significant distances to be here – and across the nation, more than £500 million will be bet on the outcome of the 26 races, culminating in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday 19th March.
For more information and to book tickets visit www.cheltenham.co.uk
About Debenhams
Debenhams is a leading department store group with a strong presence in key product categories including womenswear, menswear, homewares, health and beauty, accessories, lingerie and childrenswear.
Debenhams has 158 stores across the UK and Ireland and has a successful own brand portfolio with the Designers at Debenhams range offering customers exclusive product lines at mainstream prices by designers such as Jasper Conran, Ben de Lisi, Henry Holland, Betty Jackson, Julien Macdonald, John Rocha and Matthew Williamson.
About Channel 4
Channel 4 Racing is the UK’s longest running, award-winning sports programme. C4’s 2010 Festival coverage will employ nearly 40 cameras to ensure that the 22-hours total of Festival action is delivered better than ever before. Presenters dressed by Debenhams include: Alice Plunkett, Alastair Down, John Francome, Jim McGrath, Ted Walsh, Lesley Graham, Derek Thompson, Simon Holt, John McCririck and Tanya Stevenson.
About The Tote
The Tote is one the principal betting organisations in Britain, with more than 4,500 employees, 512 betting shops and a major presence on each of the 60 racecourses in Britain, as well as significant internet and telephone betting facilities.
The Tote was established by Act of Parliament in 1928 and is now one of the largest bookers in the UK. Its original purpose was to offer on-course pool betting on horseracing as an alternative to starting price betting with bookmakers and to distribute its profits for ‘purposes conducive to the improvement of breeds of horses to the sport of horseracing.’ The first major race meetings with tote betting were the flat race meetings at Newmarket (July Course) and Carlisle on 2nd July, 1929.
Tote Investors Ltd (TIL) was set up in 1930 as an independent company by a ‘group of gentlemen interested in the welfare of racing’ to channel off-course and credit bets into the tote pools. The tote bought TIL in 1962 and now totesport.com has over 200,000 active clients and accepts credit and debit bets for fixed-odds and pool betting on horseracing and most sporting events via their telephone call centre and the internet.
totesport offers a comprehensive multi-channel means of betting on sports from across the globe, everything from Premiership football through to NFL in the United States and Australian Rugby League. totesport also bet in-play on all live televised matches on Sky Sports, BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and will be betting on selected matches from the new ESPN football channel.
Present on all 60 British racecourses, totepool is the only pool betting operation on horseracing in Britain. Run for the benefit of British horseracing, profits from totepool go back into racing and over 74 million bets are placed through the tote every year.
There are 512 totesport betting shops which offer cash and debit card betting on horseracing, as well as a wide range of sporting and non-sporting events.
