Why the Cheltenham Festival is the perfect week within the sporting calendar
Cheltenham Festival is a special week, not just on the sporting calendar, but in everyone’s diaries as the unrivalled drama is all-consuming across four brilliant days
Horses like two-time Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs are made national heroes
The Cheltenham Festival has one more day left, one more chance left, for legends to be made and dreams to come true.
On Gold Cup day, the chance to reflect on the three previous brilliant days of racing ahead of the showpiece event makes you appreciate that Cheltenham is the best time of the year. The Festival is more than just four days, with the excitement and talking never ceasing, even after the final race.
Friday is sure to throw up more enthralling action with the Gold Cup headlining day four as The Jukebox Man, Gaelic Warrior and Jango Baie all lead a market that is impossible to call, just like their incredible finish in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day that has its eagerly awaited rematch on the grandest stage.
Even without superstar and Cheltenham legends Constitution Hill, Galopin Des Champs, Fact To File, Stateman, Marine Nationale and Sir Gino, the level of quality across the four days of racing has been exceptional.
History, tradition, respect
From the first Festival in 1860, there are very few meetings or tournaments that can boast the same level of history as Cheltenham.
The tradition that has formed over the years from dress codes to Ladies Day, the different generations who attend and those who have become engrossed with the cultural and social enormity of the Festival.
Written in the script are some of the most emotional moments in sport, from Sean Flanagan winning the Champion Chase on Marine Nationale just months after Michael O’Sullivan, who rode the horse to victory in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle two years prior, tragically died after a fall at Thurles last year. To Annie Power’s redemption, Honeysuckle and Rachel Blackmore’s fairytale ending, Sprinter Sacre’s comeback and Best Mate’s Gold Cup hat-trick.
These heroes of yesterday still continue to be treated as the legends they are with Festival icons being paraded around in front of the crowd to give those horses that incredible feeling back and show just how special winners around that famous course are. The relationship between man and beast is impossible to recreate.
The craic
Whether you attend Cheltenham, head off abroad to soak up the Benidorm atmosphere, go down the pub or simply reconnect with mates during the build-up and race week, Cheltenham is a sense of belonging.
The feeling of the punters taking on and bashing the bookies while dreaming of landing a life-changing bet is something that leaves everyone excited for the Festival.
And the drama never ends before, during, and after those four fabled days as the talk already turns to who will return to cement or write their Festival legacies the following year.
