Earlier in 2016, Randox Health signed a five-year agreement to become title sponsor of the Randox Health Grand National at Aintree from 2017 and was also unveiled as the official healthcare partner of The Jockey Club, which owns both racecourses, joining an esteemed and growing list of Group Partners.

The company's first involvement in sponsorship of British horseracing happened last Saturday at Cheltenham, with the two £50,000 feature handicap chases - the Randox Health Handicap Chase and the Randox Handicap Chase over three miles and a furlong.

Now the company is extending its backing at the 'Home of Jump Racing' by announcing sponsorship of the historic County Handicap Hurdle on the fourth and final day of The Festival in March.

The Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle will take place over nearly two miles and a furlong and eight flights of hurdles on Friday, March 17th, 2017, when it is staged as the second race of the day. The company has signed a five-year sponsorship agreement, with an option to renew.

The Jockey Club is striving to raise Randox Health's message of preventive health and wellbeing amongst its members, and to the wider racing audience at all fifteen Jockey Club Racecourses.

Dr Peter FitzGerald, Founder and Managing Director of Randox Health, said: "We are thrilled to be adding The Cheltenham Festival to our racing portfolio, given that it is a milestone event in the racing calendar. Following the announcement of our sponsorship of the Randox Handicap Chase and the Randox Health Handicap Chase at The Showcase, we have received significant interest in what we do here at Randox; in particular our Randox Health Preventive Health Programmes and also our dedicated Equine Health Programme.

"We are fully committed to improving healthcare through early and accurate diagnosis and we are extremely pleased that, as a sponsor of The Cheltenham Festival, we are able to bring our preventive health philosophy to a much wider audience. As festivalgoers will appreciate, we all want to live life to the full and looking after our health is key to making the most of our opportunities".

Ian Renton, Regional Director, South West Region of Jockey Club Racecourses, commented: "We are delighted that following on from Randox Health's sponsorship [...] at The Showcase, they are also to sponsor the County Hurdle at The Festival. The race is a great platform for them to showcase their brand with ITV coverage and develop the relationship as a partner of The Jockey Club.

"For the past twenty years, the County Hurdle has also been associated with the great Vincent O'Brien, who sent out twenty-three winners at The Festival between 1948 and 1959. Having spotlighted his feats for such a long time, we feel it is appropriate for the race to benefit from all the additional support that a sponsor brings, whilst retaining the County Hurdle title.

"We continue to celebrate Vincent's tremendous achievements as one of only twenty-five people and horses immortalised in the Cheltenham Hall of Fame".