CHELTENHAM IN THE PINK

Thomas Pink were today unveiled as new sponsors of the first big race of the jumps season.

They will back the Stg80,000 Thomas Pink Gold Cup at Cheltenham on November 11th, the centrepiece of a three-day meeting hitherto run as the Murphy's 'Irish Craic' but now to be known as the Open 2000.

Explaining the fixture's new name, Cheltenham managing director Edward Gillespie said: 'In other sports 'Open' denotes a quality sporting occasion and that is what these three days are.'

Total prize money at the meeting will rise by 24 per cent this year to £435,000.

Thomas Pink, shirt manufacturers and retailers based in London's Mayfair, step into a gap left by Whitbread, founder sponsors of the feature two-and-half-mile chase which was known as the Mackeson Gold Cup from 1960 until 1995, and the Murphy's since 1996. - PA