As we get closer to the 2022 Cheltenham Festivities, which will start on 15th March and continue for four days straight till March 18th, it is hard to imagine that the festival was not even held in Gloucestershire once upon a time. Let’s get started on this little historic discussion with that 162-year-old point in time where it all began.
The Cheltenham Festival Did Not Originate in Cheltenham
In contrast to what the current name of the festival may suggest, the Cheltenham horse racing festival did not originate in the town of Cheltenham. The jump racing meeting was not even held in the same county, given that the first edition of the festival in 1860 was inaugurated in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
In 1861, the 2nd Edition of the National Hunt meeting was held in Cheltenham for the very first time, but it was moved to another county soon after. The Cheltenham Festival, even before it was called the Cheltenham Festival, was actually an equine meet with no fixed venues for a long time.
When the annual meeting was first integrated into the National Hunt schedule, there was no Cheltenham in the Cheltenham Festival at all. It wasn’t even called “The Festival” then, which became its unofficial name during the early 1900s. Instead, the races were collectively known as the Grand National Hunt Meeting in 1860. This was the official name back then and it continued to be so for several decades.
Cheltenham Festival in Warwickshire
Before the festival came to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire for the second time in 1904, Warwick Racecourse had become the primary choice of venue for most Grand National Hunt Meets. Even after the meet was held at the Cheltenham Racecourse for two consecutive years in 1904 and 1905, the festival returned to Warwick for five years between 1906 and 1910.
Cheltenham Festival Races: 18 to 28?
The Cheltenham Festival was always celebrated for only three days for as long as the records go back, but that changed in 2005. Whereas only 18 races were being conducted over the course of three days with a strict 6 race/day schedule, Cheltenham festival became a 4-Day event, thanks to a much bigger budget than before. The entire format was shuffled quite a bit to improve every aspect from 2005 onwards.
An additional day of horse racing at the Cheltenham Festival meant that several new races had to be introduced with a Grade 1 featured race now being scheduled on each of the four days. The total number of races reached 24, with six races still being scheduled on each day during the Cheltenham Festival’s new 4-day running.
Soon after, the Cheltenham Festival grew even more in size, financial support, and popularity, prompting one more race to be added to each racing day, and that’s the current format being followed for well over a decade now. There will be a total of 28 Cheltenham Festival races in 2022, with fourteen Grade 1, three Grade 2, seven Grade 3, and four Ungraded races.
They will be divided into 4 race cards with 7 races on each day. As it has been for a while now, the Champion Hurdle (March 15th), the Queen Mother Champion Chase (March 16th), the Ryanair Chase and the Stayer’s Hurdle (March 17th), and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (March 18th) will be the main events on their respective dates.
1911: The Year When Cheltenham Festival Became a Permanent Resident
After the festival returned to Warwick in 1906, efforts were put in place to significantly improve the Cheltenham racecourse inside Prestbury Park. These improvements, as made by the Messrs. Pratt and Company included:
- A new grandstand (not to be confused with the 2015 Princess Royal Grandstand).
- Several miles of drainage to prevent flooding.
- Paved enclosures.
- A bigger paddock, capable of housing 35 separate saddling boxes (1911).
Once the renovations were complete by 1911, the new racecourse was ready to house the March meeting with renewed preparedness. The National Hunt Committee was very impressed with the results, and the 1911 Grand National Hunt Meeting was indeed held inside Prestbury Park. They were even more impressed by how successful the event turned out to be in 1911 and that’s precisely when the festival became a permanent fixture at Cheltenham Racecourse.
