Cheltenham Festival, which falls this year on March 10th - 13th, is an annual celebration of this country’s equine culture. Alongside the Grand National at Aintree it stands as the premier event in the National Hunt racing calendar - attracting only the finest racers to compete for some of the richest purses within the sport.
During
the Festival, Cheltenham
Racecourse
at Prestbury Park will be overrun by trainers, owners and jockeys all
frantically preparing for their big moments - which may only last a
few minutes. Over the 4 day event there will be no less than 27 races
each of which will bring lashings of drama to the final second.
For
jockeys the run up to Cheltenham is an exciting and challenging time.
The “big names” - like Tony McCoy, Ruby Walsh and Frankie Dettori
will all have their pick of mounts for the big events and so use the
run up to gauge ability and form. Everything learned during these
lower key races will be stored and analysed before Cheltenham.
Owners,
too, have some tough emotional and financial decisions to make. The
large fields and challenging nature of the Cheltenham courses has
cost several mounts their
lives
in recent years. Owners must weigh up the risk to their horses and
riders against the chance of winning and also consider that a
healthy, retired horse may be worth more at stud than on the course.
Against all this weighs the considerable prestige of winning any
Cheltenham event, let alone the Gold Cup which is possibly racing’s
most sought after prize.
But
it isn’t just those “in the business” that sweat the run up to
Cheltenham Festival. Even now an operation of hundreds is preparing
the track and readying the grandstand. During The Festival itself a
huge operation involving thousands of caterers, security guards,
marshals and plenty more will come together to give the 80,000 daily
spectators a seamless experience. If the temperature dips below
freezing in the run up (not unlikely, given this country’s climate)
every inch of Cheltenham’s track will be covered
in sheeting
to mitigate damaging frosts that can cause delays and cancellations.
Bookmakers
too will be busy studying every race run by Cheltenham contenders to
adjust their prices on the thousands of markets
they’ll be offering.
As much as £600m
will be wagered on Cheltenham and even fractional mistakes can take
millions from the bottom line.
With
just weeks to go until March 10th and another incredible installment
of The Cheltenham Show the excitement is ramping up in all quarters.
Nowhere else in the world will you such pivotal moments occur in such
quickfire succession - the tiniest element the difference between
glory and ignominy!