The Cheltenham Festival
11th – 14th March 2014
The Cheltenham Festival is one of the biggest meetings of the National Hunt racing calendar in the UK. Its prize money is only second to that of the Grand National which helps attract some of the UK and Irelands best horses and jockeys. With races such as the world famous Champion Hurdle and The Gold Cup, Cheltenham provides some of the year’s best racing action on top of world class hospitality facilities to accommodate all of your needs. Every year hundreds of millions of pounds are gambled over the four days, this makes the atmosphere one of the best of any of the other major meetings.
The Cheltenham Festival originated back in the 1860’s when the National Hunt Chase was held at Market Harborough. The venue for this race changed over the years, however it eventually made its home at Cheltenham permanently in 1911.
The main event of the festival is the Cheltenham Gold Cup which was established in 1924. This was the only Championship race held at the festival until 1927 when the Champion Hurdle was introduced followed by the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1959 and finally the Stayers Hurdle which began in 1972.
In 2005 it was decided that there should be one championship race per day so the meeting was extended to four days. The main championship race, The Gold Cup, takes place on the Friday making this the most popular day to attend the festival. In order to accommodate the change in format and make attending worthwhile, five new races were introduced so that each day has six races.
In 2012, horse racing fans witnessed the end of an era at Cheltenham. Kauto Star was attempting to defend his Gold Cup crown and failed. He lost out to Synchronised ridden by legendary jockey Tony McCoy in what was the highlight of meeting.
Corporate Hospitality Facilities
