Cheltenham explained
Four days of racing in which 14 of the 28 races are Grade 1s.
e Cheltenham Festival, which starts tomorrow and runs until Friday, is widely considered to be the biggest meet of the British and Irish National Hunt season.
Many of the most important races in the jumps calendar, both in terms of prize money and prestige, are run at this four-day event.
There are 28 races at the Cheltenham Festival - seven per day. The majority of these are run over one of two obstacles – either taller fences, or shorter hurdles, and range in distance from around two miles (about 3218m) to the four-mile (about 6437m) National Hunt Chase.
The races are divided into various divisions, based on a range of factors such as experience, age, sex and, in some races known as handicaps, where horses carry weight to theoretically level the playing field, ability.
Of the 28 races at the Festival, 14 are classed as Grade 1s – the highest class of race in the sport.
Each of the four days has a main feature race, known as a championship race. They are:
Tuesday - Champion Hurdle: The most prestigious hurdle race in the sport, run over 3200m.
Wednesday - The Queen Mother Champion Chase: The top prize on offer for horses running 3200mo miles over fences.
Thursday – The Stayers’ Hurdle: This three-mile (about 4828m) hurdle race is considered slightly less prestigious than the other championship races, and the Ryanair Chase, a two-and-ahalf mile (about 4023m) run over fences on the same day, is sometimes thought of as co-headliner.
Friday – The Cheltenham Gold
TCup: The Festival’s blue ribbon event, a gruelling test of stamina run over three-and-a-quarter miles (about 5230m) over fences.
The first organised Flat race meeting in Cheltenham took place in 1815 on Nottingham Hill, with the first races on Cleeve Hill in August 1818.
Racing’s popularity soared over the next decade with crowds of 30,000 visiting the racecourse for its annual two day July meeting featuring the Gold Cup, a 3-mile flat race.
In 1829, Cheltenham’s Parish Priest, Reverend Francis Close, preached the evils of horseracing and aroused such strong feeling among 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 racecourse 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.
In 1964, Racecourse Holdings Trust (now Jockey Club Racecourses) was formed to secure the future of Cheltenham. The group now owns 14 racecourses - a combination of jump, flat and dual-purpose courses - as well as training grounds in Newmarket, Lambourn and Epsom and the National Stud. The Jockey Club Group reinvest all profits back into British racing to ensure its continued success.
– There are eight furlongs in a mile. With most races at Cheltenham run between two and three miles (about 3218m and 4828m), you’ll often hear the commentator mention the number of furlongs left to run in the final stages. In metric terms, a furlong is about 201m. Going – This refers to the state of the ground. “Heavy” ground would be wet and muddy, while hard, drier ground is called “firm”. Usually at Cheltenham, the going is somewhere in the middle, between good and soft. Novice – This is the name given to a horse who had not won over a certain obstacle prior to the start of the current season. At Cheltenham, there are several races for both novice hurdlers and chasers. On the bridle – Specifically, this refers to a horse who is running with the bridle, or bit, still in his mouth. However, in practice, it is often used to refer to a horse who wins easily. Pulled up – If the jockey feels a horse is out of contention, either because he’s tired and well beaten or because of injury or a bad mistake, he will sometimes choose to stop the horse mid-race to protect its well-being. Ridden along/being ridden