The Cheltenham Festival has rapidly expanded into the most lucrative commercial event in the world of thoroughbred horse racing. Not only is it one of the most popular events on the National Hunt calendar, bringing together the world’s best stayers and hurdlers, it’s also one of the most influential to the local economy too.
The Cheltenham Festival is a veritable ‘World Cup of Horse Racing’. It welcomes a who’s who of champion jockeys and racehorses, as well as hundreds of thousands of spectators who make the annual pilgrimage to Gloucestershire to soak up the atmosphere.
There is a record amount of prize money up for grabs at the Cheltenham Festival too, which is undoubtedly the main reason why the world’s best trainers bring their cream of the crop over to south-west England for a week of racing. In 2018, the prize money totaled an eye-watering £4.59 million, equating to well over £1 million per day in prize money during the festival – more than any other jump racing festival in the world.
There is a huge contingent of jump racing fans that make the trip from Ireland each year. According to the Irish Examiner, over €22.3 million was spent by Irish racegoers alone at the festival back in 2016, spanning event tickets, entertainment, travel, and accommodation in the Cheltenham area. It was predicted that this figure would rise to €25 million for the 2019 festival. Low-cost airline Ryanair regularly puts on additional flights covering the Dublin-Birmingham route during the festival, with approximately 20,000 Irish racegoers flying to south-west England.
The four-day festival is also a considerable money-spinner in terms of the bets placed by racing enthusiasts and casual viewers alike. The last festival was said to have accepted bets worth approximately £6 million across the week. The leading bookmakers tend to cater for this increased demand by launching enhanced offers and free bet promotions, including money back specials for some of the biggest races for every day of the festival. The biggest betting day is Friday, which boasts the Cheltenham Gold Cup as the feature event to conclude the entire festival. The Group 1 race covets a prize purse of £625,000 alone and attracts plenty of betting interest in the lead up to day four of the festival.
It all augurs well to generate £100 million for the Cheltenham economy, which is double the amount that the festival generated just nine years ago. Much of the money that the event generates is reinvested into the UK’s horse racing industry in general. Cheltenham Racecourse is owned by the Jockey Club, and a “significant proportion” of the club’s annual revenues are contributed by the Cheltenham Festival.
A sizeable chunk of the festival’s revenues was reinvested in Cheltenham Racecourse itself, delivering a new state-of-the-art grandstand that sets the tone for a world-leading sporting venue.
Every year, the Cheltenham Festival attracts over 900 accredited journalists to cover the week-long event. With television coverage across the globe, it is a sporting event that has become a media paradise. In terms of corporate hospitality, Cheltenham Festival is up there with the best sporting events in the UK. Each year, the racecourse hires up to 350 professional chefs to serve up the fine fare to guests. In total, the racecourse employs a catering team totaling over 3,800 staff who work daily to create and serve approximately 45,000-afternoon teas, with five tons of smoked and fresh salmon consumed, along with nine tons of potatoes.
Hospitality is essential because there are plenty of bigwigs that pay Cheltenham a visit every March. In fact, the racecourse has a temporary helipad, serving up to 100 helicopter landings per day. Past festivals have seen guests pay up to £7,200 to hire ‘pods’ in The Orchard, which can seat between 12 and 20 people. The racecourse’s ‘Park Enclosure’ is also one of the hottest tickets in town, attracting some of the biggest DJ names in the country from BBC Radio 1, Capital FM, and many more major stations to create a party atmosphere before, during, and after each day’s racing.
Some 260,000 spectators typically flock to Cheltenham Racecourse over the four-day festival. Cheltenham Tourism anticipates annual demand of up to 10,000 beds per night during the event, with the Cheltenham Spa train station serving approximately over half (135,000) of all visitors. Furthermore, 80,000 spectators utilize the racecourse’s shuttle bus service to and from the town center over the course of the festival.
Cheltenham is known as the ‘Festival Town’ not just for its National Hunt, but for its Literary and Jazz festivals too. The Regency town has become a veritable hotspot for popular culture through the years, bringing hundreds of millions of pounds into Gloucestershire and putting the south-west corner of England well and truly on the global map.
When it comes to the racing itself, there are five feature races scheduled throughout the four-day festival. We’ve already touched upon the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is widely regarded as the ‘Blue Riband’ of National Hunt racing and the most valuable steeplechase race without handicaps in British horse racing. There’s also the Queen Mother Champion Chase, which is historically the feature race of day two of the Cheltenham Festival. The race was named in honor of the Queen Mother following her 80th birthday back in 1980, and the name remains the same today as a lasting tribute.
Meanwhile, the Champion Hurdle is labeled the final leg of the ‘Triple Crown of Hurdling’ and remains the most iconic hurdling race in the National Hunt season. The Ryanair Chase is one of the newer feature races at Cheltenham Festival, having been inaugurated as recently as 2005. However, this Grade 1 race has already cemented itself as a popular event during the fourth and final day in the lead-up to the Gold Cup. Last but by no means least, the Stayers’ Hurdle is another Grade 1 feature race and remains the most popular long-distance hurdle race, run at a shade over two miles and seven furlongs.
With at least one Grade 1 race each day, the Cheltenham Festival is a must-see event on the calendar of any horse racing fan.