Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Festival is the most prestigious meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom. Its importance in National Hunt racing is comparable to the importance of the World Cup in Football, as it is the event when most of the best Irish and British horses will compete, which is relatively rare during the rest of the season.

It takes place annually, in March and usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day, at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the leading National Hunt racecourse in the United Kingdom. The Festival is noted for its buzzing atmosphere, which is aided by the tens of thousands of Irishmen who make their way across the sea for the Festival. Forced to fork out much money for the privilege of getting to and staying in Cheltenham, many fans bet huge amounts of money, with hundreds of millions of pounds being gambled over the four days. There is also an Irish tradition of drinking many gallons of Guinness.

In 2001 the Festival was cancelled due an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain.

The famous Cheltenham roar refers to the enormous amount of noise that the crowd generates as the horses enter the home straight, and try to climb the hill which has been too much for even some of the greatest horses.

The Festival was traditionally run over the course of three days, but this changed in 2005, with the introduction of a fourth day. There are 24 races overall, with Grade One events including the Champion Bumper, Triumph Hurdle, Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Royal&SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle, Arkle Novices' Chase, Royal&SunAlliance Novices' Chase, Champion Hurdle, World Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the feature race, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

 

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