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Cheltenham Courses
Prestbury Park is a beautifully crafted sporting arena, carved within the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire and the courses are unlike those at any other racecouse. Undulating and stamina sapping, the sting in the tail regularly comes at the end of each contest in the form of the supremely challenging "Cheltenham Hill" - an ever-upward climbing passage runners must scale from the last obstacle to the winning line. Every weapon in a competitor's arsenal is needed for victory at Cheltenham.
The Festival uses all three of Cheltenham's courses. The Old Course stages racing on the first two days of the meeting, with the New Course taking over for days 3 and 4. Since the Festival changed to a 4 day meeting in 2005, the amount of ground available to race on has been increased.
The fences on the New Course have also recently been widened by 5 metres, which gives the racecourse the flexibility to use the outside portion of them during the early part of the season, saving around 12 metres of entirely fresh ground (and fence) on the inside of the New Course specifically for the Festival.
The unique cross country course is used for the Cross Country Handicap at the Festival.
Horses battle their way up the daunting Cheltenham Hill - a challenge like no other in National Hunt racing
New Course
The New Course has two fences in a longer home straight, but only one fence on the downhill run. This obviously can still be tricky, for similar reasons to the two downhill fences on the Old Course, but a key obstacle here has always been four out. Taken at the top of the hill as the horses start to turn left, it often caught out even the most seasoned chasers given that the course fell away to the left immediately after the fence. However, the fence has now been moved back 15 metres meaning it is jumped on a slightly flatter part of the track.
As well as testing a horse’s jumping to the limit, the longer run-in on the New Course, up the famous Cheltenham hill, will ruthlessly expose any chinks in a horse’s stamina.
The New Course also has a rather unusual layout to its hurdles track given that there are only two flights in the last seven furlongs. Two out, on the downhill run, is about half-a-mile from home leaving a near three furlongs run to the final flight in the home straight. Also, in the Triumph and County Hurdles, contestants cross eight flights of hurdles, but the first is only a matter of strides from the start. It can, therefore, catch horses cold, before they have got into any sort of rhythm.
Old Course
The Old Course has just one fence in the home straight. The critical two fences are three and two out as they are both taken on the run downhill before the turn into the home straight.
Races on this course really start in earnest at the top of the hill (after the final ditch, four out) and the third last, in particular, can catch out horses who find themselves gathering momentum and traveling slightly quicker than they feel comfortable with.
The second last is a real “jockeys” fence and has put paid to the chances of many horses over the years. Punters whose dreams are still alive at this point can certainly breath a partial sigh of relief once their selection has cleared this tricky obstacle.
Cross Country Course
The cross country course takes racing at Cheltenham back to its roots with a selection of natural and man made obstacles incorporating banks, ditches, hedges, water and timber rails.
Designed by Mike Etherington-Smith, who was responsible for the 3-Day Event cross country course at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the configuration of the course deliberately weaves around the centre of Prestbury Park, with turns to the left and right leading competitors on a variety of routes and directions.
One of the main differences between the Cross Country Course and the steeplechase courses at Cheltenham is the materials used to build the fences. Chase fences are constructed from 'dead' materials whereas the fences on the Cross Country Course are living, growing trees, shrubs and bushes, which are regularly trimmed for racing.
Prestbury Park