The Cheltenham Festival is, unequivocally, the highlight of the British National Hunt season. Staged in mid-March, since 2005, the Cheltenham Festival has consisted of four days of top-class action, featuring the crème de la crème in every discipline of the sport. Nowadays, each day of the Festival consists of seven races, making 28 in all, of which 13 are contested at the highest, Grade 1 level.
Each of the four days – known, for promotional purposes, as ‘Champion Day’, ‘Ladies Day’, ‘St. Patrick’s Thursday’ and ‘Gold Cup Day’ – has as its highlight one of the four feature races, namely the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup. Traditionally, the long-distance hurdling championship, the Stayers’ Hurdle, was the feature race in St. Patrick’s Thursday, but in recent years has been superceded, in terms of prestige and value, by the intermediate-distance chasing championship, the Ryanair Chase, which was promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008.
The highlight of the week – and, arguably, of the entire National Hunt season – is the ‘Blue Riband’ event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, on the fourth and final day. Run over an extended three and a quarter miles, and 22 fences, on the New Course at Cheltenham, the Cheltenham Gold Cup has a long, illustrious history, dating back to 1924. Its roll of honour includes such legendary names as Golden Miller, Arkle, Desert Orchid, Best Mate and Kauto Star.
The Grade 1 contests aside, the Cheltenham Festival programme also includes a series of famously competitive handicap races, of which there are currently 12, with at least two run on each of the four days. Nowadays, they once again include the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase, the only race of week to be run on the idiosyncratic cross-country course, which reverted to a handicap in 2025, having been a conditions race since 2016.