Deal likely to secure C4 Racing

Racemail understands that at least two major bids, one from an Irish bookmaker hoping to increase its profile in Britain and another from an organisation with Middle East connections, will be on the table.

Satellite Information Services, the largely bookmaker-owned company that supplies pictures to most betting shops, are also known to be bidders.

However, betting exchange Betfair, which had widely been predicted as the most likely new sponsor, are believed to have fallen down the list of potential replacements for totesport, whose deal with C4 will finish at the end of the year.

Totesport announced that they would be ending their agreement with the channel in July in advance of changes to advertising rules on betting firms introduced on September 1.

Totesport ploughed £2.5million a year into C4 racing and the channel indicated that a replacement deal was necessary to keep the cameras rolling.

With the BBC's racing coverage now minimal, there were fears that racing's major shop window on terrestrial TV might be lost.

But a C4 insider said last night: "C4 will decide next week which bid to proceed with. There will be two or three bids on the table."

C4 maintains that it requires a sponsor because it is not prepared to subsidise its coverage while others profit from the exposure it gives the sport.

C4's traditional coverage of this week's Doncaster St Leger meeting is now limited to Friday and Saturday.

With all the major races at the four-day festival consequently concentrated at the backend of this week, today's opening day, when the course's new £32m grandstand will be officially opened by the Princess Royal, has a low-key appearance.

However, it does feature the valuable St Leger Stakes for two-year-olds, which boasts £300,000 in prize money.