Cheltenham Festival
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The Cheltenham Festival is the most prestigious meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom and has race prize money second only to the Grand National. It is an event where many of the best British and Irish trained horses race against each other, the extent of which is relatively rare during the rest of the season.
It takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Because of the nation's horses and the fact it usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day, the meeting is often very popular with Irish visitors.
Huge amounts of money are bet, with hundreds of millions of pounds being gambled over the four days and so the Festival is often noted for its atmosphere, most notably the "Cheltenham roar", which refers to the enormous amount of noise that the crowd generates as the horses enter the home straight and long run in.
The first Cheltenham Festival was held in 1902 at Prestbury Park, Cheltenham, which still remains the same venue for the festival to this day. It was in 1904 that the first National Hunt Steeplechase was introduced to the festival. This race became known as the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1924, when it was won by a horse called Red Splash. The Gold Cup was the first of the four Championship races, before the Champion Hurdle was introduced in 1927. The Queen Mother Champion Chase was introduced in 1959 before the Stayers Hurdle, the last of the championship was first run in 1972.
In 2001 the Festival was cancelled due an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain. In 2008 the second day of the festival was cancelled due to heavy storms which hit Britain that week. The races scheduled for that day were instead run on the Thursday and Friday of the Festival.
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 25 races overall, with Grade One events including the Champion Bumper, Triumph Hurdle, Ryanair Chase, Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Ballymore Properties Novices' Hurdle, Arkle Challenge Trophy, Royal & SunAlliance Chase, Champion Hurdle, World Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the feature race, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The Festival also includes one of the two biggest Hunter Chases of the season the Foxhunter's which is run on the Friday over the same course as the Gold Cup and is also known as the amateurs' Gold Cup.
Criticisms
For several years there have been concerns about the high number of injuries and fatalities to horses. This was brought to a head in 2006 when 11 horses died. In response the racecourse decreased the number of runners in certain races and resited one of the more difficult fences. However, some animal rights groups do not accept that this is sufficient.
Top Jockeys
The top jockey for the festival is the jockey who wins the most races over the four days. The winners since 1980 with wins in brackets are:
- 2008 Ruby Walsh (3)
- 2007 Robert Thornton (4)
- 2006 Ruby Walsh (3)
- 2005 Graham Lee (3)
- 2004 Ruby Walsh (3)
- 2003 Barry Geraghty (5)
- 2002 Richard Johnson (2)
- 2001 Cancelled - foot & mouth
- 2000 Mick Fitzgerald (4)
- 1999 Mick Fitzgerald (4)
- 1998 Tony McCoy (5)
- 1997 Tony McCoy (3)
- 1996 Richard Dunwoody (2)
- 1995 Norman Williamson (4)
- 1994 Charlie Swan (3)
- 1993 Charlie Swan (4)
- 1992 Jamie Osborne (5)
- 1991 Peter Scudamore (2)
- 1990 Richard Dunwoody (2)
- 1989 Tom Morgan (2)
- 1988 Simon Sherwood (2)
- 1987 Peter Scudamore (2)
- 1986 Peter Scudamore (2)
- 1985 Steve Smith Eccles (3)
- 1984 Jonjo O'Neill (2)
- 1983 Graham Bradley (2)
- 1982 Jonjo O'Neill (1)
- 1981 John Francome (3)
- 1980 Jim Wilson (3)