Four days of Cheltenham Festival Races in 2020 – Times, Prizes and Schedule.
The Cheltenham Festival is held over four days every year in mid-March at Cheltenham Racecourse in, can you imagine that, city called Cheltenham.
It has become the climax of the National Hunt Season with the build up dominating the entire season, any major race which is held after the turn of the year is seen as preparation for the festival.
Its popularity has meant that it attracts a great deal of visitors from around the globe, with there usually being around 100,000 visitors to each festival.
The quality of all entrants is top class, and there are an increasing number of international entries.
The Irish, in particular, are hugely competitive and there is always a great deal of competition between Irish and UK competitors.
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Tuesday, 10 March 2020, Cheltenham Day One – Champions Day
Wednesday, 11 March 2020, Cheltenham Day Two – Ladies Day
Thursday, 12 March 2020, Cheltenham Day Three – St Patrick’s Thursday
Friday, 13 March 2020, Cheltenham Day Four – Gold Cup Day
Short History of Cheltenham Racing Festival:
The first Cheltenham Festival was a two-day meeting held in 1902 to mark the reopening of Prestbury Park Course. It was soon established as a major racing event when the first four-mile National Hunt Steeplechase was held at the festival in 1904. In 1927 the first Champion Hurdle was run over two miles, and it was not until 1949 that the event was extended to three days. As the festival flourished, so calls for expansion were heeded, as works began in 1979 on new £30 million stands which would bring the festival into the forefront of racing events and, in 1989, a further £5 million grandstand was added.
The festival’s prestige today derives substantially from its historical pedigree, with the only cancelled event being in 2001 courtesy of the foot and mouth crisis. The following year, the festival returned with full force when it was announced that the prize money would break the £4 million barrier. In 2005 the event was extended to four days to coincide with the new multi-million-pound Centaur centre, establishing the festival as a major social event full stop.
