THE CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL

March · Prestbury Park, Cheltenham · Four Days · Since 1911 · The Turf

Arranged by the Court

The field turning for home before the packed grandstands at The Cheltenham Festival, Cheltenham, the four days of March jump racing — I · Turning for Home

Dates: 16 to 19 March 2027
WherePrestbury Park, Cheltenham
DressCountry attire
AdmissionOpen to the public
The weatherIn March Cheltenham reaches about 11°C by day and 4°C at night, and rain falls on about one day in three.
The tableThe Court dines afterwards at Le Champignon Sauvage, 24-28 Suffolk Road, Cheltenham (lechampignonsauvage.co.uk), and on the Tuesday at The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie, Rotunda Terrace, Montpellier Walk, Cheltenham (ivycollection.com).
Of noteThe gates at Prestbury Park open at 10.30 on each of the four days of the Festival.
In companyA member who means to go says so to the Secretary, and the Court seats its members together where the engagement allows.RSVP tells the Secretary that a member means to attend. Send passes the engagement’s name, its date and the address of its page to whomever the reader chooses, or, on a computer, copies the address; the Court itself sends and keeps nothing.RSVP

The Cheltenham Festival is four days of jump racing in March and the championship of the sport. Twenty-eight races, the leading horses of Britain and Ireland, and some two hundred and twenty-five thousand people across the week.

It is the second largest race meeting in Britain after Royal Ascot, and it is nothing like Royal Ascot.

Runners walking the parade ring before racing at The Cheltenham Festival, the crowd in tweed and country attire in the enclosures around them — II · The Parade Ring

The Riot

Cheltenham first raced in 1815, and from 1818 on Cleeve Hill, the down above the town. By the 1820s the meetings had acquired a reputation: heavy betting, heavy drinking, and trouble between the town and its visitors.

In 1829 the Rector of Cheltenham, Francis Close, preached against it. His congregation acted on the sermon. The meeting of 1830 was disrupted, and before the next one the grandstand on Cleeve Hill was burned to the ground.

In 1831 racing moved down off the hill to Prestbury Park, where it has stayed. Which means the most important jumps course in the world sits where it does because a clergyman objected to it.

The National Hunt Chase began at Market Harborough in 1860 and moved about for fifty years, mostly to Warwick. It came to Prestbury Park permanently in 1911, and that is where the Festival as it now exists begins. The Gold Cup was added in 1924 and made the centrepiece four years after that.

A grey winning up the Cheltenham hill, the jockey’s whip raised as the field chases, at The Cheltenham Festival — III · The Run-In

The Hill

The course is left-handed, undulating, and it finishes uphill.

That last detail is the whole of it. Most racecourses finish flat or downhill, so a horse in front at the last stays in front. Cheltenham asks for half a mile of climbing after the final fence. Horses that looked beaten come back and horses that looked certain stop, and more races change here in the last two furlongs than anywhere else in the sport.

Then there is the noise. As the tape rises for the first race of the week the crowd produces a sound known simply as the Cheltenham roar. It lasts perhaps twenty seconds and it carries down to the town.

The grandstand and the crowd on the rail beneath Cleeve Hill during a race at The Cheltenham Festival, the March meeting — IV · The Grandstand

What to Know

The Irish come, and they come in numbers. Thursday is St Patrick’s Thursday, the British and Irish yards contest a trophy across the week, and the Guinness figures run past two hundred thousand pints. Cheltenham in March is an Anglo-Irish occasion staged in Gloucestershire, which is what separates it from Ascot.

Each of the four days has a character. Tuesday is Champion Day and holds the roar. Wednesday is the dressing day. Thursday belongs to the Irish. Friday is the Gold Cup.

The Jockey Club keeps no formal dress code at Cheltenham and asks that racegoers dress for the weather, though fancy dress is not permitted in hospitality, the restaurants or the Club Enclosure. The Court wears country attire, and it is the real thing here rather than a costume. It rains, the ground is Gloucestershire clay, and anyone in town shoes regrets it by the second race.

The hill is worth climbing. Walk to the top of the course and watch a chase come down towards you. It is the only place from which you understand what the fences are actually asking.

Questions

When is the Cheltenham Festival 2027?

The Cheltenham Festival 2027 runs from Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027: Champion Day on the Tuesday, Ladies Day on the Wednesday, St Patrick’s Thursday, and Gold Cup Day on the Friday. Gates open at 10.30 on each of the four days.

Is there a dress code at the Cheltenham Festival?

The Jockey Club has no formal dress code for the Festival and asks racegoers to dress for the weather and wear footwear for walking. Fancy dress is not permitted in hospitality, the restaurants or the Club Enclosure. The Court wears country attire.

What are the enclosures at the Cheltenham Festival?

There are three. The Club Enclosure covers the main grandstand, the Members’ lawn and the winning post, and admits to every Tattersalls area. Tattersalls sits at the heart of the racecourse. Best Mate, opposite the main grandstand, looks head-on down the home straight and is popular with groups.

How many races are there at the Cheltenham Festival?

Twenty-eight over four days. The first race each day is at 13.30 and the last at 17.30. The Champion Hurdle is run on the Tuesday, the Queen Mother Champion Chase on the Wednesday, the Stayers’ Hurdle and the Ryanair Chase on the Thursday, and the Gold Cup on the Friday.

A winning jockey standing in the irons before the rail after the Gold Cup at The Cheltenham Festival, Gloucestershire — V · The Gold Cup

The Court

The Cheltenham Festival is not the Court’s own. Boxes, enclosure badges and rooms in a county that has too few of them are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay, and the table afterwards. Gloucestershire fills entirely for the week, and members are generally better served staying out towards Stow or Cirencester.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.