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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.
Prestbury Park
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 horse racing 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 was first staged at Prestbury Park in 1898. Since 1831, the venue has grown from 'three fields' for flat racing into a 500 acre site that has become the home of National Hunt racing.
The Cotswold hills provide a spectacular backdrop to the Cheltenham Festival
The Festival
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. A new 3m7f Cross Country Chase was added to Tuesday’s card, which still features the Champion Hurdle. Wednesday’s highlight is still 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 national hunt racing 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's 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 successful wagers on his dual Champion Hurdle winner 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.
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. 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.
| Year | Number of Irish trained Festival winners |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 9 |
| 2008 | 7 |
| 2007 | 5 |
| 2006 | 10* |
| 2005 | 9 |
| 2004 | 4 |
| 2003 | 6 |
| 2002 | 5 |
| 2001 | cancelled |
| 2000 | 3 |
| 1999 | 5 |
| 1998 | 4 |
| 1997 | 3 |
| 1996 | 7 |
| 1995 | 4 |
| 1994 | 3 |
| 1993 | 6 |
| 1992 | 2 |
| 1991 | 2 |
| 1990 | 2 |
| 1989 | 0 |
| 1988 | 1 |
| 1987 | 1 |
| 1986 | 4 |
| 1985 | 2 |
| 1984 | 4 |
| 1983 | 5 |
| 1982 | 6 |
| 1981 | 3 |
| 1980 | 4 |
| 1979 | 5 |
| 1978 | 6 |
* record, although the Festival was previously three days up until 2005
Irish punters revel in taking on Cheltenham's bookmakers in their great annual pilgrimage to the Gloucestershire countryside
Champions, cups and cancellations
1902: Festival is established.
1924: First Gold Cup is run at the Festival, 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 and is run in April instead.
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 two of the Festival cancelled due to high winds with all Wednesday races moved to Thursday and Friday.
Over 250 bookmakers attend each day of The Festival.
Cheltenham in numbers
An estimated 230,000 spectators attend the four days of the Festival. With ticket prices ranging from £20 - £80, the estimated gate receipts total around £7 million.
Approaching £600 million (over half a billion pounds!) is staked on the outcome of the 26 Festival races. The Festival also accounts for around 10% of the Tote’s annual on-course pool betting turnover (not bad for four days’ racing out of a fixture list consisting of well over 1,000 meetings!), and at least a million pounds changes hands on each race in the betting ring at the racecourse, with over 250 bookmakers in attendance for each day of The Festival.
Over the four days, 450 horses will run at the Festival, from 297 stables at the racecouse and 2,000 bales of bedding will be used for the horses, who will be looked after by 500 stable staff.
During the Festival meeting 200 tonnes of divot mix will be used in treading / repairing the course, together with 100 sacks of grass seed.
There are 10 miles of running rail on the racecourse with 165 hurdles and 24 fences - measuring a quarter-mile long if they were all joined together.
After the 26 races of the Festival, there are 3,960,000 hoofprints on the racecourse.
The racecourse employs over 60 permanent staff, which rises to approximately 1,000 for a race meeting and over 5,000 at the Festival.
The Festival is worth an estimated £50m to the local economy and hosts the largest Tented Village of any kind at a sporting event. Over £2m is spent each year on temporary facilities alone.
Festival drinkers get through 20,000 bottles of Champagne, 30,000 bottles of wine, 240,000 bottles of beer and 220,000 pints of Guinness.
Typically 45,000 cars, 1,000 coaches and 50 stretch limousines are employed to ferry people to the Festival. Around 650 helicopters land at the course during the meeting, making it the busiest temporary airfield anywhere in the country.
Prize money at Cheltenham exceeds £6m throughout the season with over £3,560,000 on offer at the Festival alone - an average of £136,923 per race, making it the most valuable and prestigious fixture in jump racing. Around half that total comes from the race sponsors; the richest race is the £470,00 Gold Cup.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup trophy is minted each year. It contains 10 ounces of gold and is worth around £8,500.
Throughout the year, 700,000 people visit the racecourse.
Horses and jockeys negotiating one of the 24 fences at Cheltenham