Cheltenham Festival

Coordinates: 51°55′13″N 2°3′28″W / 51.92028°N 2.05778°W / 51.92028; -2.05778

Champion Hurdle

The Cheltenham Festival is a meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National.[1] It is an event where many of the best British- and Irish-trained horses race to an extent which is relatively rare during the rest of the season.

The festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The meeting usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day, and is particularly popular with Irish visitors.[2]

It features several Grade I races including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and Stayers' Hurdle, held over four days. Large amounts of money are gambled during Cheltenham Festival week, with hundreds of millions of pounds being bet over the week. Cheltenham is often noted for its atmosphere, most notably the "Cheltenham roar", which refers to the enormous amount of noise that the crowd generates as the starter raises the tape for the first race of the festival.

History

The Cheltenham Festival originated in 1860 when the National Hunt Chase was first held at Market Harborough. It was initially titled the Grand National Hunt Meeting and took place at several locations since its institution, at the turn of the 20th century it was mostly held at Warwick Racecourse. In 1904 and 1905 it was staged at Cheltenham over a new course established at Prestbury Park in 1902, having previously taken place at Cheltenham in 1861. From 1906 to 1910 it was again held at Warwick but further additions and major improvements made at Cheltenham by Messrs. Pratt and Company, including a new stand (the fourth one), miles of drain to prevent unsuitable racing ground, tar paving in the enclosures and the paddock extended to 35 saddling boxes, proved enough to make the National Hunt Committee decide on that the 1911 meeting was to return at Prestbury Park, Cheltenham where it remained to the present day.[3][4][5] The earliest traceable reference to a "Festival" is in the Warwick Advertiser of 1907.[6]

The Stayers' Hurdle, first ran in 1912, is the oldest race from the Cheltenham festival that is currently a championship race. The Gold Cup, established in 1924, was originally a supporting race for the County Hurdle which was the main event of the first day but that quickly changed and in the following seasons it became a championship race, however for many years it was still used by the trainers as a preparation race for the Grand National. The Champion Hurdle first ran in 1927 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1959, were both championship races from the time they were introduced unlike the Stayers' Hurdle and Gold Cup.[7][8]

In 1987, 21-year-old Gee Armytage became the first female jockey to win a race at the festival on 17 March 1987. She won the Kim Muir Challenge Cup, back then held on Tuesdays and backed it with another victory the next day in the Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup on a horse aptly-named Gee-A.[9]

In 2001 the Festival was cancelled due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. The meeting had initially been postponed to April, but when a case of the disease was confirmed locally, putting the racecourse within an exclusion zone, all racing had to be called off.[10]

In 2008, the second day of the festival was cancelled due to heavy storms. The races scheduled for that day were instead run on the third and final days of the festival.[11]

Winners' enclosure at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Until 2005 the festival had traditionally been held over the course of three days, but this changed with the introduction of a fourth day, meaning there would be one championship race on each day, climaxing with the Gold Cup on the Friday. To ensure each day would still have six races, five new races were introduced. Four further races have since been added, bringing the total to 28 races overall, with grade one events including the Champion Bumper, Triumph Hurdle, Ryanair Chase, Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle, Arkle Challenge Trophy, RSA Chase, Champion Hurdle, World Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the feature race, the Gold Cup.

The festival also includes one of the two biggest Hunter Chases of the season, the Foxhunters', which is run on the Friday over the same course as the Gold Cup, and is sometimes referred to as the "amateurs' Gold Cup".

Unlike Royal Ascot and many other top flat racing events in Britain and Ireland, the Cheltenham Festival does not have a history of attracting many international contenders, though French-trained horses have done well – Baracouda being perhaps the most well-known, having landed the World Hurdle twice.

Criticisms

For several years there have been concerns about the number of equine injuries and fatalities. In 2006, 11 horses died and in response the racecourse decreased the number of runners in certain races and re-sited one of the more difficult fences.

On the opening day of the 2012 festival, three horses had to be euthanised after suffering bone fractures or breaks, including two during the Cross-Country Chase, becoming the second and third equine fatalities in that race since 2000.[12] There were two further equine fatalities during the festival, and some critics claimed races should not have gone ahead due to the firmness of the ground following exceptionally dry weather. The RSPCA suggested that guidelines be reviewed, while the British Horseracing Authority stated that "with over 90,000 runners a year [in British horse racing], some accidents and sadly some injuries are inevitable."[13]

Races

The number and type of races at the Cheltenham Festival has changed dramatically over the years of its existence. In particular, it has grown from a two-day meeting to a four-day meeting. In 2017, there were 28 races as follows:

DayRaceObstaclesDistanceClassCurrent Sponsor
TuesdaySupreme Novices' HurdleHurdles2m 1/2fGrade 1SkyBet
TuesdayArkle Challenge TrophyFences 2mGrade 1Racing Post
TuesdayFestival Trophy Handicap ChaseFences3m 1/2fGrade 3Ultima Business Solutions
TuesdayChampion HurdleHurdles2m 1/2fGrade 1Unibet
TuesdayDavid Nicholson Mares' HurdleHurdles2m 4fGrade 1OLBG.com
TuesdayNational Hunt Challenge CupFences4mGrade 2–
TuesdayClose Brothers Novices' Handicap ChaseFences2m 4 1/2fListedClose Brothers Group
WednesdayBaring Bingham Novices' HurdleHurdles2m 5fGrade 1Ballymore
WednesdayRSA ChaseFences3m 1/2fGrade 1RSA Insurance Group
WednesdayQueen Mother Champion ChaseFences2mGrade 1Betway
WednesdayCoral CupHurdles2m 5fGrade 3Coral
WednesdayCross Country Chase[A]Cross Country3m 7fUngradedGlenfarclas
WednesdayFred Winter Juvenile Novices' Handicap HurdleHurdles2m 1/2fGrade 3–
WednesdayChampion BumperNHF2m 1/2fGrade 1Weatherbys
ThursdayGolden Miller Novices' ChaseFences2m 4fGrade 1Jardine Lloyd Thompson
ThursdayPertemps FinalHurdles3mListedPertemps
ThursdayFestival TrophyFences2m 5fGrade 1Ryanair
ThursdayStayers' HurdleHurdles3mGrade 1Sun Bets
ThursdayMildmay of Flete Challenge CupFences2m 5fGrade 3Brown Advisory / Merriebelle Stable
ThursdayFulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge CupFences3m 1 1/2fUngraded–
ThursdayDawn Run Mares' Novices' HurdleHurdle2m 1fGrade 2Trull House Stud
FridayTriumph HurdleHurdles2m 1fGrade 1JCB
FridayCounty Handicap HurdleHurdles2m 1fGrade 3Randox Health
FridaySpa Novices' HurdleHurdles3mGrade 1Albert Bartlett
FridayCheltenham Gold CupFences3m 2 1/2fGrade 1Timico
FridayFoxhunter ChaseFences3m 2 1/2fUngradedSt James's Place
FridayMartin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap HurdleHurdles2m 4 1/2fUngraded–
FridayJohnny Henderson Grand Annual ChaseFences2m 1/2fGrade 3–

Top jockeys

The winners' enclosure in 2014

The top jockey for the festival is the jockey who wins the most races over the four days. The winners since 1980, with wins in brackets, are:[14][15]

Cheltenham Festival Leading Trainers

[16][17][18]
The leading trainer for the festival is the trainer who trains the most winners in the races over the four days. The winners since 1997, with wins in brackets, are:

References

  1. ↑ "Going is good for Cheltenham". BBC Sport. 17 March 1998. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  2. ↑ "Cheltenham festival gets underway this afternoon". The Belfast Telegraph. 10 March 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  3. ↑ "1912 Improvemnts and additions at Cheltenham". Gloucester Citizen. 9 December 1912. Retrieved 14 November 2015. (Subscription required.)
  4. ↑ "1911 National Hunt Steeplechase meeting at Prestbury Park". Cheltenham Chronicle. 11 March 1911. Retrieved 15 November 2015. (Subscription required.)
  5. ↑ "1913 National Hunt Meeting – a record attendance". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 13 March 1913. Retrieved 14 November 2015. (Subscription required.)
  6. ↑ Stevens, Peter, History of the National Hunt Chase 1860–2010. ISBN 978-0-9567250-0-4
  7. ↑ "A head victory for Red Splash". Western Morning News. 13 March 1924. Retrieved 14 November 2015. (Subscription required.)
  8. ↑ "County Hurdle goes to Hednesford". Daily Mail. 12 March 1924. Retrieved 14 November 2015. (Subscription required.)
  9. ↑ "Geee upsets odds – and men – at the Festival". The Glasgow Herald. 19 March 1987. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  10. ↑ "Cheltenham Festival called off". BBC Sport. 1 April 2001. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  11. ↑ "Cheltenham Festival". BBC Sport. 12 March 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  12. ↑ GMT (14 March 2012). "Cheltenham Festival: Two more horses die on second day". BBC. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  13. ↑ Faulkner, Katherine (16 March 2012). "RSPCA fury at carnage of Cheltenham horses as five die in bloodiest opening to festival for six years". Daily Mail. London.
  14. ↑ "2015 Top Jockey". Irish Racing. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  15. ↑ "Top Jockeys 2014-1997". Cheltenham. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "Cheltenham Festival Top Trainers 2004–2013". Eclipse. Archived from the original on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  17. ↑ "Cheltenham Festival Top Trainer 2014-1997". Cheltenham Festival. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  18. ↑ "2015 Leading Trainer". Irish Racing. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
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