Several races see conditions altered while raceday experience aimed to be improved.
To promote the Cheltenham Festival and make it more exciting, this course announced a lot of major changes to the 2025 race schedule. To be reviewed is the whole program at the 2024 Festival, which hopes to improve not just the nature of races but the overall experience for those who will attend this gold standard of National Hunt events.
Perhaps the most exciting alteration is the replacement of the two-and-a-half-mile Turners Novices' Chase with a Grade Two limited novice handicap chase. With this change, which is supposed to ensure a better contest, after much argument over how the race was spread, the problem is solved. Meanwhile, the National Hunt Chase, run to date for amateurs, will be raced by professionals and switched status to become a novice handicap chase for horses graded between 0-145.
Jon Pullin, the Cheltenham head of racing and clerk of the course, elaborates on this reasoning: "The restrictions that were put upon the race limited the pool of riders that could potentially compete, so opening it up to professional feels the right move.". However, amateur riders are still a key component of the Festival, which is attested to by the continuation of races such as the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase and the St James's Place Festival Hunters' Chase for them to ride. Pullin expressed optimism that the new novice handicap chases would foster larger and more competitive fields while encouraging top novice chasers to pursue Graded races such as the My Pension Expert Arkle and the Brown Advisory.
Another change to note is the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, which will reassert from becoming a conditions race to a limited handicap. This will have had to be mainly due to the control that outstanding runners in the likes of Delta Work and Tiger Roll had when winning, with victory after victory not being left over for the other horses in the race. According to Pullin, a switch to handicap will guarantee that there is a much more competitive contest that will shift the level playing ground for the participants.
To support the female division, little change is contemplated in the three races for mares. Both the Grade One Mares' Hurdle and the Grade Two Mares' Chase remain as is, but the Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle will switch to being a handicap race without penalties to run on equal weights. The yardstick here is to incentivize connections to run their mares worry-free of additional weight burden at the Festival.
The Pertemps Final will make an important alteration. The winners of the series qualifiers are now all qualified for the race if they are within the weight at declaration. And because non-novice Festival handicaps will ensure that horses have run four times over fences and five times over hurdles, the route for the contenders makes more sense.
Other measures taken have been taken concerning logistical issues as well. This is due to severe rain experienced at the 2024 Festival that churned the ground and provided parking nightmares. The Grass car parks will feature additional hard-standing 'trackway'. There will be a new park-and-ride system. Over 20 locations have been offered for coach travel, giving the spectators an easy and affordable route to the festival.
To give more for the money, ticket prices for 2025 will be frozen at 2024 prices and multi-day tickets from 2 days onwards, excluding Gold Cup day, will be discounted. Bookings of six or more will also be discounted. Cheltenham is also looking to upgrade its bar facilities with an indoor option where meal deals are available to reduce queues and make more comfortable racing for its visitors.
To this end, Ian Renton, managing director of Cheltenham, said that the changes were in light of very significant feedback from racegoers and other stakeholders. "Value for money, providing the best experience possible, and ensuring a competitive race program were the main drivers behind these changes," he said. "We are committed to exceeding expectations and delivering a Festival that both racegoers and competitors will love."
