Irish Champion Stakes Day to be a World Pool event

For the first time, Longines Irish Champion Stakes Day will be a World Pool event.

Through collaboration between the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Tote, Horse Racing Ireland, and Racecourse Media Group, for the first day of the festival, which takes place at Leopardstown Racecourse on Saturday 11th September, racing fans from around the world will have the opportunity to bet into a single pool, ensuring larger and deeper pools, differentiated pricing, and the opportunity for unequalled value for Tote customers.

Created and hosted by the Hong Kong Jockey Club since 2018, over 20 leading racing nations, including Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, and the US have been part of World Pool to date.

Tote Ireland entered into a strategic alliance with the UK Tote Group in 2020. One of the benefits of this alliance, along with developing joint product and value improvements for tote.ie and tote.co.uk, is the delivery of the first World Pool for Irish racing.

Alongside the vast liquidity created by World Pool, the Tote provides Irish customers betting on tote.ie with extra value. This includes Tote Guarantee which ensures the Win price always matches or exceeds the Industry Starting Price (SP), while Tote (Tote Plus) gives all customers a 10% dividend enhancement on every winning bet.

In total, over €372 million (£320m) has been bet into World Pool on 15 British race days in 2021 at the QIPCO 2000 Guineas Day, Cazoo Derby Day, Royal Ascot, Coral-Eclipse Day, QIPCO King George Diamond Day, the Qatar Goodwood Festival, and Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival.

Brian Kavanagh, Chief Executive of Horse Racing Ireland, which owns Tote Ireland, said: “We are delighted that the Hong Kong Jockey Club have made Irish Champion Stakes Day at Leopardstown a World Pool event for the first time. This is both great news for Irish Tote bettors and for Leopardstown, underlining the benefits of Tote operators around the world coming together to provide bigger pools and better value. We look forward to continuing work with the Hong Kong Jockey Club and all involved in World Pool as it continues to grow and develop.”

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said: “I am pleased to see Ireland become the fourth racing jurisdiction to participate in World Pool following the UK, Dubai and South Africa. The World Pool provides customers from around the globe the opportunity to tap into the global pool with unmatched liquidity and is a significant source of additional income for our content partners during these challenging times. During the past summer of World Pool meetings, Goodwood and York festivals were simulcast for the first time. The next focus of attention will be the Irish Champion Stakes Day which is the first time an Irish race will be included in World Pool. We wish Horse Racing Ireland every success on the day.”

There have been examples of exceptional value which can also be expected to be replicated on Longines Irish Champion Stakes Day:

• At the Cazoo Derby at Epsom Downs the pool grew from €1.9 million (£1.7m) to over €30.3 million (£26m) with winners paying more on the Tote. For example, Adayar paid 20.24 on Tote compared to an SP of 16/1.

• World Pool at Royal Ascot saw the Tote Win price beat the Industry SP on 21 occasions and match it on 14 occasions across the 35 races. This resulted in a 11% higher return compared to SP for Tote bets placed on tote.ie, based on placing a €1 bet on each winner during the week.

• At the Qatar Goodwood Festival, 17 of the 22 winners were bigger on the Tote than with bookmakers, and the Tote matched them on the remaining five. This meant Tote customers were €34.63 better off with Tote to a €1 stake on every winner, which is 14.2% better than the SP. Six of the 22 races finished with “overbroke” final dividends betting to less than 100%, compared to an average overround of 15% with the bookmakers — this simply never happens in any other betting environment.

• At the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival Tote win price beat the SP on 16 of out 21 occasions and matched it on the remaining five. There were 3 “overbroke” markets betting to less than 100%. The biggest World Pool market of the week was on the Group 1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes with €4.6 million (just under £4m) in the pool. The winner Winter Power paid out at 14.46 on Tote compared to an SP of 9/1.