The Cheltenham Festival
The magic of the Cheltenham racing festival.
Spreading joy, sparking interest and connecting the international racing community, there is truly nothing like the Cheltenham Festival. Whether you are a racing enthusiast or only follow the biggest events on the racing calendar, the famous Cheltenham Roar will no doubt stir up excitement in you.
The Cheltenham Festival, which boasts roots dating back to 1860, has taken place every March at the beautiful Prestbury Park in Cheltenham since 1910. This unparalleled event sees the greatest horses, jockeys and trainers from the UK, Ireland and beyond go head-to-head over a four-day event. The Festival comprises 28 races, 14 of which are Grade One races.
Each Festival draws in approximately 250,000 attendees. On-course punditry and races are also widely televised across the world, with every channel from Sky Sports to ITV Racing broadcasting the one-of-a-kind event. The average viewing figure for the week is close to 1 million, with a peak average of 1.4 million during the Gold Cup. This figure seems to be growing yearly, given the enhanced accessibility of live streaming via various digital channels and online bookmakers. Due to the popularity of the event, there have been many calls to add a fifth day to the Festival. However, these calls were rebuffed by the Jockey Club in 2022.
2024 Cheltenham Festival
The 2024 Cheltenham Festival is a much-anticipated one, marking the 100th anniversary of the event's feature race: The Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Followers of the 2024 instalment will also be eager to see Constitution Hill back at the course. Constitution Hill will return to the Festival this year to defend his title in the Unibet Champion Hurdle, which is the feature race on the opening day, making up the last leg of the "Triple Crown of Hurdling".
Other highlights include the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase, Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle, JCB Triumph Hurdle, SkyBet Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Turners Novices' Chase and the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase.
Over the years, many event sponsors have become synonymous with their respective events. Races such as the Festival Trophy, Spa Novices' Hurdle and Golden Miller Novices' Chase are now almost exclusively referred to as the Ryanair Chase, Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle and Turners Novices' Chase. Sponsors, especially the bookmakers, play a key role in the grandeur of the event. With enhanced odds and promotions, bookmakers will go to great lengths to capture the interest of racing bettors and provide great value to new and existing customers.
Cheltenham Festival: Day-by-day
Day One: Champion Day (Featuring the Unibet Champion Hurdle)
Day Two: Style Wednesday (Featuring the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase)
Day Three: St Patrick's Thursday (Featuring The Ryanair Chase and Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle)
Day Four: Gold Cup Day (Featuring The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup)
The Biggest Upsets in Cheltenham Festival History
While the Cheltenham Festival is guaranteed to bring racing fans the most extraordinary racing talent, it is also known for throwing up an upset or two, especially for the bookies. On countless occasions, hugely-priced horses have gone on to win their respective races, costing racing bookmakers millions as a result. Here are a few of the biggest-priced horses that have enjoyed unexpected Cheltenham success:
Norton's Coin – 100/1: Norton's Coin, a 100/1-priced horse trained by Sirrell Griffiths, won the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup, a win penned as the sporting shock of the century. Beating the favourite and widely-regarded Desert Orchid priced at 10/11, nobody saw this result coming!
Hardy Eustace - 33/1: The bay gelding shocked racing followers when winning the Champion Hurdle in 2004. With a long list of second-place finishes, the Irish horse was not fancied to romp home as the winner of the Hurdle, mainly due to its tough competition. Many credit his impeccably-timed surge down the stretch for the triumph. Although going toe to toe with the favourite Rooster Booster, Hardy Eustace pulled away and won by an impressive five lengths.
Kirriemuir – 50/1: Going way back to 1965, a horse called Kirriemuir entered the Champion Hurdle. With its far-from-perfect record, the horse was handed the longest odds to ever be given in the race, 50/1. In some kind of miracle, he managed to bat off fierce competition in National Spirit, Sir Ken and Hatton's Grace, romping home first. Even now, this is thought to be one of the biggest upsets in racing.
Glens Melody - 6/1: Whilst a horse winning a Grade 1 race off an SP of 6/1 doesn’t seem like a huge upset, this race will long be remembered as the race that Annie Power didn’t win. Day one of the 2015 Cheltenham Festival saw Irish trainer Willie Mullins send out four red-hot favourites, and the quartet were all heavily backed in combination/accumulator bets. The first three, Douvan, Un De Sceaux and Faugheen, all duly obliged and won their respective races. What followed was described by Ladbrokes as the “£50m fall”. Annie Power led the Mares’ Hurdle by four lengths as she approached the final obstacle and bookies began to fear the worst. However, much to the heartbreak of the fans, Annie Power fell at the final hurdle, leaving Glens Melody to finish just ahead of Polly Peachum. Annie Power’s tumble is believed to have saved the bookies somewhere in the region of £50m.
Interesting Facts About the Cheltenham Festival
In 2018, Katie Walsh became the first female rider to win a Grade One race at The Festival.
5,000 bundles of wood are used every season at Cheltenham to create the fences
250 rails bookmakers are present during each day of the Cheltenham Festival
8,000+ gallons of tea and coffee are served at the racecourse over the 4-day Festival
