The £1.2m Sky Bet Sunday Series is delighted to announce new initiatives for the 2023 series, with the launch of the £60,000 Jockey Cup and a new charity partner in the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND Association).
The Jockey Cup will offer a total of £60,000 of prizes across the six fixtures in the Series. The jockey who amasses most points at each fixture will scoop £10,000 per fixture.
Jockey Paul Mulrennan said: “The Jockey Cup is a great idea and will firmly focus my mind, as well as my colleagues in the weighing room. It is a big pot and hopefully I can scoop one Jockey Cup, if not two! The Series is a great way of lifting jockeys’ profiles and connecting with the racefans and there should be some great stories to tell.”
The Series is delighted to welcome its new charity partner, the MND Association, which will put their name to the Jockey Cup and also one race at each of the six fixtures.
Richard Parris, Corporate Development Manager at the MND Association, said: “We are grateful to be invited to be an integral part of the six fixtures of the Sky Bet Sunday Series and the new Jockey Cup. The Series provides us with a great opportunity to raise awareness of motor neurone disease and invite people to support us in the race to find a cure for this brutal disease.”
The £100,000 bonus, so nearly won by Evaluation in 2022, returns and is on offer to the connections of the first horse to win three races across the Series.
Sir Ian Good, whose Evaluation failed by a nose to win the £100,000 bonus, said: “I’ve owned horses for 25 years, and won the Zetland Gold Cup, but had never felt excitement like that before. Racing is full of highs and lows, and we never expected to be in this position in the first place. And that’s the beauty of the Sunday Series, it’s given a certain grade of horses the opportunity to perform on a stage with excellent prizemoney and bonuses on offer.”
Stable Staff will have the opportunity to win cash prizes, with a total of £15,000 (£10k, £3k, £2k) to be paid out to the stable staff of the first three trainers in the Series. In addition, Sky Bet will once again kindly sponsor and offer £250 for the Best Turned Out in each race.
The Series, in its third year, is an industry-wide collaboration between ITV, Racecourse Media Group, Sky Betting and Gaming and the participating racecourses, which will showcase the sport in a Sunday twilight slot on terrestrial television during the summer.
The schedule for the 2023 Sky Bet Sunday Series is:
- Musselburgh 30th April
- Hamilton 14th May
- Beverley 11th June
- Pontefract 25th June
- Haydock Park 6th August
- Sandown Park 20th August