Hot on the heels of Baaeed’s defeat at 1-4 in the Champions Stakes at Ascot, there was another big surprise on Monday morning as the Jockey Club announced that Cheltenham’s Festival meeting in March will not be extended to a fifth day from 2024. If the general delight among National Hunt fans on social media is any guide, this was a rare example of a beaten odds-on shot that punters could celebrate.
Cynics – this one included – who suggested back in April the Jockey Club’s “consultation” over a fifth day at the Festival was window-dressing for a decision that had already been made will eat their humble pie, and do so, for the most part, very happily. Rumours that Cheltenham was intent on moving to a five-day, Tuesday to Saturday Festival have bubbled to the surface on a semi-annual basis almost since the switch from three days to four in 2005, but if a six-month consultation process cannot build a convincing case for a five-day Festival, it is surely now a dead issue for the foreseeable future.
As has been pointed out many times in the past when a fifth day was mooted, it was never quite as simple as a 25% boost to the number of days equalling 25% more profit for Jockey Club Racecourses. Corporate hospitality – the highest-margin ticket by far –is a much more difficult sell on Saturday, while staffing costs are much higher due to competition from other big sporting events.
A cut in the number of daily races, from seven to six, would also have been a poor way to reward the fans that have already pushed Cheltenham ahead of the five-day Royal Ascot as Britain’s third-most attended annual sporting event, with 280,627 spectators in March 2022 against 273,465 at the Royal meeting in June. And that is before worries about further diluting the quality on offer for spectators are taken into account.
The Turners Novice Chase at last year’s meeting attracted four runners, none from British stables. Ultimately, though, concerns about “the potential impact for the racing surface” seem to have tipped the balance in favour of the current format, alongside “the uncertain economic environment”, according to Ian Renton, Cheltenham’s managing director, on Monday.
Rather than expand to Saturday, the course will instead concentrate on enhancing the experience for its current audience, which has been capped at 68,500 daily – a maximum of 274,000 over the meeting – from 2023. This will include improved facilities and “on-course activations” – defined as “things we’ll do to engage fans who visit the racecourse” – although many Festival regulars might argue they are already sufficiently engaged without the need for further “activation”.
There will be those who complain that an opportunity is being missed, that the potential for a “fresh audience” at the weekend is being ignored. But Cheltenham is not, and never will be, Royal Ascot, where the Heath meeting was – very successfully – converted to a fifth day in 2002, in terms of its location, the prevailing climate or the competition from other sporting events.
Newbury
12.50 Physique 1.25 Promoter 2.00 Bloomwithgrace 2.35 Kings Joy 3.10 Juan Bermudez 3.45 Final Watch 4.20 Bernardo O’Reilly 4.55 Russian Rumour
Doncaster
1.10 Swift Lioness 1.45 Sea Of Roses 2.20 Flying Circus 2.55 Maltese Falcon 3.30 Dakota Gold 4.05 Dark Jedi 4.38 Lizzie Jean 5.10 Morning Sun
Cheltenham
1.35 Soul Icon 2.10 Aucunrisque (nb) 2.45 Mofasa 3.20 Hang In There 3.55 Onagatheringstorm (nap) 4.30 On Springs 5.05 Fennor Cross
Newcastle
4.43 Infiniti 5.15 Under Fox 5.45 Azure Angel 6.15 Azucena 6.45 Kingori 7.15 Kasino 7.45 Truly Charming 8.15 Unashamed
It is also able to stick at four days in the knowledge that attendance is at an all-time high and ticket sales for next year’s Festival are reassuringly strong. Compare and contrast with another of the sport’s biggest days, the Champions Day card at Ascot on Saturday, where the attendance of 23,872 was the second-lowest in the event’s 12-year history, and 23% down on the 2017 figure.
Ascot will point to mitigating factors, including the cost of living crisis that is depressing post-lockdown attendances across the board, but the downward trend started three years before Covid. ITV’s viewing figures, while slightly above the last year’s level with an average of 487,000, a peak of 688,000 and audience share of 6.9%, were below the numbers for the Dewhurst Stakes and Cesarewitch card at Newmarket a week earlier (518,000 average, 655,000 peak and 9.4% share).
With £4m in prize money on offer and an outstanding racehorse attempting to complete an unbeaten career, the figures can only be seen as a disappointment. British racing set itself a huge task when it decided to create a new end-of-season extravaganza, to some extent at least in competition with events such as the Arc weekend and the Breeders’ Cup. It became harder still when, for various practical and political reasons, it settled on a date at Ascot in mid-October. Predictably, the going description has included the word “firm” twice in a dozen years.
Southwell 12.50 Miss Dolly Rocker 1.20 Mostallim 1.55 Nat Love 2.30 Cooperation 3.05 Hail Sezer 3.40 Chandeleur Island 4.15 Expert Opinion 4.50 Yagan 5.25 Back From Dubai
Carlisle 1.05 So Scottish 1.35 Maximilian 2.10 Allbetsoff (nap) 2.45 No Cruise Yet 3.20 Maninsane 3.55 Paddy The Panda 4.30 Benito
Ludlow 2.20 Gouet Des Bruyeres 2.55 Kingston Sunflower 3.30 I Spy A Diva 4.05 Minella Plus 4.40 Coastguard Station 5.15 Fenney Brook
Wolverhampton 4.35 Dark Swansong 5.10 Robasta 5.45 Topo Chico 6.15 Dartman 6.45 Dragonball Prince 7.15 Strong Power 7.45 Espirito 8.15 Baby Steps (nb)
Ascot has always been Britain’s best-attended track but if Cheltenham can maintain the number of spectators at its pre-Christmas fixtures around last year’s level, it will not be too far behind this year. While Cheltenham has stepped back from a fifth day at the Festival in a position of strength, the popularity of Ascot’s most valuable card, for the moment at least, seems to have peaked.
