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Cheltenham Festival History
For four extraordinary days in the middle of March the racing community from all around the world converges on Cheltenham for the climax of the National Hunt season.
Racing at Cheltenham dates back nearly 200 years to 1815 when the first meeting was held on Nottingham Hill with the first races on Cleeve Hill taking place in August 1818.
Racing’s popularity soared over the next decade with crowds of 30,000 visiting the Course for its annual two day July meeting featuring the Gold Cup. Spectre was the first horse to win the Gold Cup - then a three-mile Flat race.
In 1829, Cheltenham’s Parish Priest, Reverend Francis Close, preached the evils of horseracing and aroused such strong feeling amongst his congregation that the race meeting in 1830 was disrupted. Before the following year’s meeting the grandstand was burnt to the ground!
To overcome this violent opposition the Course was moved to Prestbury Park, its current venue, in 1831. Steeplechasing became established in nearby Andoversford from 1834 and moved to the present Course in 1898. Since 1831, Prestbury Park has grown from 'three fields' for flat racing into 500 acres and has become the home of National Hunt racing.
The first Cheltenham Festival took place in 1902 and since then the event has continued to gain prominence within the racing calendar. It is now widely recognised as one of the UK’s premier sporting events, alongside the likes of Wimbledon, the British Open, the British Grand Prix and the FA Cup Final.
The Festival is the county's biggest single revenue earning event, generating an estimated £50m for local hotels, shops, pubs and clubs.
2005 saw the first four day Festival with six races on each day. The opening Tuesday card boasted a new 3m7f Cross Country Chase alongside the Champion Hurdle. Wednesday still features the Queen Mother Champion Chase, while the World (Stayers) Hurdle is now the highlight of Thursday’s card. Friday is now Gold Cup day with the Triumph Hurdle, Foxhunters and County Hurdle still also appearing on the final afternoon. The first four day Festival was undoubtedly a huge success and the format was retained in 2006 and looks set to stay.
The build up to Cheltenham now dominates the entire jumps season, with every decent race run after the turn of the year being seen as some form of Festival trial. Some have argued that this is detrimental to other top class races that are prestigious events in their own right. However, any potential downside is surely outweighed by the fact that the increased interest in the Festival has widened the attraction of steeplechasing on a worldwide basis and has brought thousands of new enthusiasts to the sport. It also provides a climax and focus that the Flat season so badly lacks.
Each year the attendances have also continued to grow, and over the duration of the meeting crowds will easily exceed 200,000. Combine this with those watching on television, listening to the radio and following live on-line feeds and you have, without doubt, one of the world's most anticipated racing spectacles.
The quality of the entrants for each and every race is top class, and the event seems to have an increasingly international flavour to it each year. Runners from France, Eastern Europe (particularly in the Cross Country Chase) and Germany are becoming more and more common, and are enjoying considerable success.
However, it is the involvement of one nation in particular, both on and off course, which gives the Festival its unique atmosphere.
The Irish
The Irish have been travelling to Cheltenham for generations, and the Festival is nothing short of a religion for many of them. For a few days every March, eager race goers cross the Irish Sea in their thousands to sample the scenic and equine delights of the Gloucestershire countryside. They are making one of sport's great annual pilgrimages, to attend National Hunt racing's famous four-day spectacle. The Irish regularly take centre stage on this great occasion, whether it be man or beast. Some of the greatest jockeys, trainers, owners and horses to have graced the hallowed turf of Prestbury Park have originated from the Emerald Isle. Legendary Irish names such as Jonjo O'Neill, Dawn Run, Arkle, Vincent O'Brien and Istabraq have sealed their place in Cheltenham Festival folklore with their glorious achievements at this magnificent Course.
The Festival would certainly not be the same without the Irish punters who revel in taking on Cheltenham bookmakers. Probably the most famous Irish gambler to be found at the Festival is owner JP McManus, known in racing circles as the "Sundance Kid", who for more than 20 years has bet - and won - huge sums, including his successful wagers on his twice Champion Hurdle victor Istabraq.
Legend tells of another Irishman who won enough on Istabraq in the Champion Hurdle of 1998 to pay off his mortgage and then lost his house on Doran’s Pride in the Gold Cup. “It was only a small house anyway,” he is reputed to have said.
In hospital after a hunting accident before one recent Festival, Irish jockey Paul Carberry was telephoned by trainer Noel Meade. “What did you break?” asked the trainer anxiously. “A gate,” replied the jockey.
Tragedy mingles with triumph all too closely in National Hunt racing and the Irish have suffered their fair share - such as former jockey Shane Broderick, who was paralysed after a horrific fall at Fairyhouse in 1997. Despite his disability, he bravely reflected on how lucky he was to ride a winner at Cheltenham. These stories sum up the indomitable spirit of the Irish that characterises the history of the Cheltenham Festival.
The Emerald Isle re-affirmed their dominance of the National Hunt scene in 2006 by winning the three most prestigious prizes the Cheltenham Festival has to offer last year. Their success reached a magnificent crescendo on the final day when War of Attrition led home an Irish one – two – three in the Gold Cup to send his countrymen into raptures on St Patrick’s Day.
The emotional win of Moscow Flyer in the Champion Chase in 2005 will also live long in the memory, as the Irish chaser confirmed himself as one of the all time greats and sparked wild Irish celebrations.
Champions, cups and cancellations
1902: Festival is established.
1924: First Gold Cup is run, won by Red Splash with prize money of £685.
1927: First Champion Hurdle.
1932-1936: Golden Miller runs up an amazing sequence of five Gold Cup (in 1934 he became the only horse ever to win the Aintree Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season).
1948-1950: Cottage Rake’s hat-trick in the Gold Cup marks the birth of the annual pilgrimage from Ireland.
1954: First locally trained winner, Four Ten, trained in Prestbury by John Roberts.
1963-1965: Arkle’s hat-trick of Gold Cups creates a legend.
1978: Gold Cup is abandoned because of snow; is run in April.
1989: Desert Orchid brings the house down by winning the Gold Cup.
1990: Norton’s Coin, at 100-1 the longest-priced winner of the Gold Cup, triumphs in the sunshine for Welsh dairy farmer Sirrell Griffiths.
1997-2000: Istabraq runs up a Festival sequence of four victories, first in what is now the Ballymore Properties Novices Hurdle, then a hat-trick in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle.
2001: Festival abandoned because of foot and mouth disease.
2002-2004: Best Mate dominates the Gold Cup, the first three-timer since Arkle.
2005: Festival extended from three to four days.
2007: Kauto Star wins the richest ever totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup and picks up a £1m bonus.
2008: Day 2 of the Festival cancelled due to high winds with all Wednesday races moved to Thursday and Friday.
Thousands of race fans pack the Cheltenham stands at every Festival