Racegoers will have more time to savour the action at the Cheltenham Festival next year. There will be 40-minute intervals between each race at the biggest meeting in the jumps calendar to help improve the experience of the 250,000 who will attend.
Other changes to the four-day Festival in March, announced yesterday on the eve of the course’s first meeting of the season, include a significant alteration to conditions of the Glenfarclas cross-country chase. In future it will be run as a conditions event, rather than a handicap, with all the runners competing off level weights.
Attendances at Cheltenham peak at about 70,000 on Gold Cup day and the longer gaps between the contests — it has been 35 minutes for most races in the past — will help those navigating their way round. It will also be a benefit to those involved in the preparation of the horses.
“A full crowd here at Cheltenham can see a lot of pressure being put on facilities and it is expected that an additional five minutes between races will have a significant impact on our customers’ experience,” said Simon Claisse, South West Regional Head of Racing for Jockey Club Racecourse.
Adjustments to the formats of the cross-country contests throughout the season should ensure that a worthy champion is crowned at the Festival.
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Balthazar King, the best cross-country horse in training, missed last season’s meeting because Philip Hobbs, his trainer, did not want to expose him to a hard race under top weight before he contested the Crabbie’s Grand National. “It seems fitting that it should be a level weights race,” Claisse said.
The new grade two Trull House Stud mares’ novices’ hurdle has been registered as the Dawn Run Novices’ Hurdle. Winner of the Champion Hurdle in 1984, Dawn Run then captured the Gold Cup two years later and is the only horse to have completed the coveted double.
Tweaks have also been made to the the Pertemps Final. Horses will only be eligible to enter if they have managed a first-six finish in any of the 17 qualifiers.
Cheltenham resumes action tomorrow, having spent £45 million on a redevelopment. A superb new stand, sweeping walkways and a giant double-sided screen by the paddock are among improved facilities.
Meanwhile, 200 pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup, which takes place next week, includes a European contingent of 29. Thirteen are from Britain, headed by Golden Horn, the Derby and Arc winner, with nine from Ireland and seven more from France.
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Aidan O’Brien has seven entries, including Gleneagles in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic and Found in the $3 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf. He has also entered four two-year-olds — Waterloo Bridge, Shogun, Hit It A Bomb and Alice Springs.