The Cheltenham Festival is the centrepiece of the National Hunt season in Britain and Ireland and easily the most anticipated racing event in the calendar.
The Cheltenham Festival: Brand new Format for 2025
In 2025, the four-day Cotswolds extravaganza, billed as the ‘greatest show on turf’, will undergo some changes. Here, we take a look at the changes that are planned, whilst pinpointing the dates you need to put in your diary for Cheltenham 2025.
Cheltenham Festival: Enhanced Experience
The Jockey Club, organisers of the Cheltenham Festival, have confirmed changes for 2025 aimed at improving competition and the experience of racegoers. On the track, there were a total of six major changes announced for the 2025 Festival. The biggest of those is perhaps the 2m4f Golden Miller Novices’ Chase being axed and replaced with a handicap in a bid to strengthen the 2m Arkle and 3m Broadway Novices’ Chase, now the only Grade 1 novice chases at the meeting.
The 3m6f National Hunt Chase, once for amateur jockeys only, becomes a novice handicap open to professional jockeys following a series of poor numerical turnouts in the race. The Cross Country Chase – won in recent times by the likes of Tiger Roll and Delta Work for Gordon Elliott – became a conditions race in 2016 and has routinely attracted graded chasers, leading to a perceived lack of competitiveness. It will revert to its old handicap status, although now with a maximum 20lb weight range in an effort to continue attracting those same high-quality chasers.
Any horse that wins a Pertemps Series qualifying race will now get a guaranteed run in the final in March, provided they are within the handicap at declaration stage. Meanwhile, runners in non-novice handicaps will be forced to race more often before March – with four chase runs and five hurdle runs now a prerequisite. Finally, penalties have been removed from the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle in a bid to allow connections get more pre-Festival runs under their belts without incurring additional weight.
Cheltenham Festival: Concerns Noted
The Cheltenham Festival experience has come in for some criticism from racegoers in recent years, as muddy car parks and soaring prices for food and beverages have become sore points. Ticket prices for 2025 have been frozen, while any patrons buying a one-day ticket can avail of a 20% discount on a second day. A new park-and-ride system will be launched within easy access of Cheltenham town, while coach travel direct to the track from more than 20 pick-up locations is being added.
The racecourse’s grass car parks are to be kitted out with hardstanding ‘trackway’ covering an area the size of 17 football pitches. Cheltenham managing director Ian Renton said a lot of thought went into the planned changes, with both racing and the raceday experience under the microscope. He said: “Throughout the course of this review process there have been three distinct strands which have been impossible to ignore – value for money, the need to provide the best experience possible and the competitiveness of the race programme.”
Cheltenham Festival 2025: New Schedule
Cheltenham Festival Day 1 – Tuesday March 11th
Cheltenham Festival Day 1
Cheltenham Festival Day 2 – Wednesday March 12th
Cheltenham Festival 2
Cheltenham Festival Day 3 – Thursday March 13th
Cheltenham Festival Day 3
Cheltenham Festival Day 4 – Friday March 14th
Cheltenham Festival Day 4
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