Chester and Bangor-on-Dee racecourses will be part of a major overhaul of At The Races which is set to become Sky Sports Racing from next year.

The two tracks - currently broadcast on Racing UK, will switch to Sky's coverage in March 2019, with the new channel launching next year and available to all Sky TV customers in the UK and Ireland at no extra cost, and also available in HD.

Earlier this year At The Races suffered a major blow when it was announced that Ireland's 26 courses and Chelmsford City would be switching to Racing UK from the start of 2019. However, this announcement indicates Sky are intending to fight back by claiming some of Racing UK's British-based tracks, with Chester and Bangor the first two to defect.

The Chester Race Company, which runs Chester and Bangor, has signed a ten-year deal with Sky Sports Racing.

Chief executive Richard Thomas said: "We’re delighted to announce this new deal and long-term partnership. We believe it secures a positive and exciting future for Chester and Bangor-on-Dee racecourses and fits squarely with our values and ambitions.

"We know Sky Sports will move the dial in the way our racing is covered but more than that we are excited by the prospect of how we can communicate and promote racing and the Chester brand further. We see real value in what the partnership can bring across TV, digital and social media, for us and for our sponsor partners.

"There is a lot of crossover between our core audiences and an opportunity to extend our reach more broadly via the Sky family of channels including Sky Sports News. We will be working very closely with the teams at Sky Sports and ATR in what will be a genuinely collaborative relationship."

Sky Sports' managing director Barney Francis said: "We’ve seen a great reaction from our customers to launching dedicated sports channels and this takes us to another level.

"Horseracing is a massive sport that Sky has been involved in for two decades, now we will have a channel to give our customers more of what they love every day.

"Adding Chester and Bangor-on-Dee is fantastic news and we look forward to making Sky Sports Racing a new home for racing fans."