The four day Cheltenham Festival is a massive national hunt racing festival that takes place every March at Cheltenham Racecourse. The event usually coincides with St Patricks Day and this, along with the large number of Irish horses and owners that take part in the event, has helped the Cheltenham Festival become one of the biggest of its kind here in the UK. In fact, there is only the Grand National that has greater prize money for any individual race.
The event was initially held over three days but in 2005 the Cheltenham Festival was extended by a day so that it is now four days long. One championship race is held on each day of the event with a total of 26 races held in total and more than 10 Grade One races over the whole festival. Each day of the event has one feature race with the climax of the week being the Gold Cup on the Friday. Total prize money for the festival alone stands at more than £3.5m.
Cheltenham racecourse has already undergone major changes, improvements, and renovations but there are yet more to come. The Weighing Room and Media Centre are next up for big changes. The course also aims to add greater paddock viewing and new boxes for racegoers to enjoy. The Cheltenham Festival features the largest tented village of any kind at a sporting event, and the cost of these facilities is said to be around £2m every single year.
The atmosphere at the Cheltenham Festival is what keeps many visitors coming back for more and the Cheltenham Roar has become renowned with jockeys, horse owners, and race goers alike. This is helped, at least in part, by more than 200,000 pints of Guinness which are consumed every year during the festival, along with 18,000 bottles of champagne.
The 2012 event will start at around midday on Tuesday March 13th and will continue for four days, during which time 50,000 people will attend the meeting. British and Irish racing fans come together to revel in some of the best quality national hunt racing and one of the most enjoyable atmospheres in world racing.
Visit CheltenhamFestival.co.uk for extensive details on the Cheltenham festival and to find out more about this year’s must see sporting and horse racing experience.