St Leger festival boosts Arena Leisure

The group said September's St Leger festival, held at Doncaster racecourse, helped boost attendances at all its racecourses between July and October to 292,000, compared with 279,000 a year earlier.

Attendance over the four days of the festival was up by 7,000 to 60,000, including a Saturday crowd of 30,000 compared with 27,000 a year earlier, Arena said.

However, it said a reduction in the Levy - paid by bookmakers to support horseracing - hit profitability from July.

"Although we remain cautious about the last two months of the year, particularly on hotel trading and non-racing events, we expect to deliver a full year result in line with market expectations," said the group.