Cheltenham Festival
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Chelt. The facts
Chelt. The facts
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Replies: 64
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Watch this space!Chester crowds down,cost of living spiralling,how many will have expendable income to carry on travelling(thinking high% don't have luxury of jumping on a plane when costs were a lot less),what was 6/8 in a group will no doubt lessen as unable to afford, high% probably in thirties with young children so family holiday will take preference,add in saving £20 per week and getting a return after trip is paid and lead treasurer says nothing left to return but you owe me more to Cover accommodation,imagine a few will say can we holiday in Ireland.
Irish 1 do any tracks in Ireland charge to park the car? |
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Yes mste 2 euro at Galway, Punchestown do . Most do actually. Rosscommon and Ballinrobe are still free as far as I know.
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They ve reduced the attendance to 68k so looks like it might be back to normal.will end up going all 5 days.why not .
But they still need to keep 7 race cards. 6 will just seem short changed. There’s loads of options, Veterans race Mares bumper 2m4f g1 hurdle 3m6f hcp chase English only race,to make sure we get at least 1 winner, |
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Unfortunately I think the Festival will be 5 days by 2024 even though the general consensus is that it’s not welcome. The major issue that could stop it could be moving any major races to the Saturday when ITV won’t show on main channel due to Rugby.
Fingers crossed it stays as it is. |
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Jockey Club confirmed to members that staying at 4 days. Great news!
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Brilliant news. Are you going Friday / Saturday Earl ?
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Only a bean counter or the Jockey Club could have advocated a 5-day Cheltenham for 2023 despite several races were represented by fewer or single-figure runners in 2022. An own goal by the Jockey Club and what a waste of scarce financial resource!
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Looks like they bottled it. It will be back in a few years. They’re still paying for new stand.
Think the number of horses was the problem. They need 7 race cards for value for money,plus police,traffic drifting off at the end. Can’t go 5 days with 6 race card. That would be shocking. Plus chaos in the car parks,m5. Train station already can’t cope. So early Finnish would cause major problems. They need a crap last race,to encourage staggered leaving times. The town and transport network can’t cope with 68k going home at same time. 2/3 mares races,longer hcp,2,5/ hurdle,veterans hcp. It’s doable. |
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The 2 biggest problems chelt have done in last few years. Was knocking the old tote stand down in tatts at the top of the hill,to make way for a food court.
Why have a food court visible to the track,put the food behind. The tatts is tiny viewing,massive area but it’s all behind the stands. If people are hungry,make them walk for it behind. Plus the new stupid seating stand in best mate,just blocked the view. People don’t pay extra for these seats. So no logic why they built it. Think they built it cos knocked the old (Doug walters stand down,only cricket experts will get this.).they knocked this down to extend the bar,more sales,so plonked another smaller stand on the rails blocking views from best mate.it was a complete cluster**** with no obvious benefit ,even for beer sales or viewing,no idea why they did it,think a seating guilt trip cos moved seats that were in car park. So. 100 get a seat,1000 can’t see track,strange descision, Until 3/4 years ago it seemed to improve every year,then something happened and it changed,either new stand manager or agressive beer sales logic. But every change since pre al boom photo first win has been a backward step(can’t remember year dates,just remember gold cup winners easier than remembering numbers. Been going since forgive and forget won,been in every enclosure,every accommodation,every town ,village in 30 mile radius.hotels,rented houses,slept in car,guest houses. You name it we ve done it,had a members badge,tatts,best mate,never done paramonic restaurant yet.. Gibbed in free for a few years when you could walk in and out with a members badge,bought touts tickets,bought real tickets most years in advance for every enclosure. Even spent 20 mins begging Gillespie ceo to not call off for high winds at 8am ,he wouldn’t listen. |
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Current prices for next years festival
£45 Best Mates £67 Tatts £93 Members A rite rip off  |
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Had meal in National Hunt room for 6 on Saturday Paddy Power Chase day. Warm beer that ran out before first race…they had to get beers from Quevega bar and put into ice buckets. Carvery was warm at best and they ran out out big plates by second race so people had to pile up food on starter plates. Service staff were fine as it’s not their fault but most ridiculous thing was only 1 salt and pepper pot in entire restaurant.
Not bad for £600 each when the bill came in. Never again. |
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I went on Friday.
First time I have driven to the course for a very long time. Was shocked to have been charged to park!!!! |
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Lot of people not going back this year from Ireland ...they dont include Willie, Henry or Gordon
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Now I ve calmed down after last year. Going all 4 days again. Knew I would.
68k crowd limit so should be less problems. Because of covid and crowd chaos,plus singing. The biggest problem is the slow decline in the quality of racing. Lhomme presse rsa/browns race last year was shocking The 4 horse turners where galophin fell,look what beat it. Bob olinger, The supreme being won by a mile 2 years running Odds on shots in the champion hurdle Nichols effectively avoiding the meeting, The mares races are 2nd rate has a decent mare runs in the grade 1s We ve come a long way from the magnificent seven running in the champion hurdle,and that was just 7 Irish horses,before the Irish had winners at the festival. The winner of the ultimata then winning the grand national Placed horses in gold cup winning the national, Although the media say the whole season is Cheltenham focused,it actually isn’t. Lanzorte on Saturday was worth 56k, a good few of the hcps are worth less than this,plus no Irish to beat. So why waste a winning chance at chelt,,leave the Irish to it. Bar the pertempts,since qualification went to first 4,the English have done well,the Irish can’t hide one plus with the extra weight the Irish have to carry,they can’t sneak one in on a good mark,first 5/6 home were English last year which is the opposite of all the other races. But. The best thing about chelt is. It gives you something to do from jan till march,so may as well get involved, Think hollow games might run well 33/1 turners or browns, |
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Hollow Games ran pretty badly last time out. Elliott will be keen to mark his return though.
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1 year on. An update on this years festival
Attendance a lot lower,lower than max. So didn’t sell out,the reason for this was in the opening post. Miles better this year,everything worked well,mainly because attendance was well down, Sold gold cup ticket on Wednesday,probably won’t be going on the Friday again. Mulling over Portugal for next year,but will probably go first 3 days. Went Doncaster on gold cup day,loads of room,no queues,internet available all day. Get a similar experience without the hassle,although Donny dosent make the most of its gold cup day fixture,races on big screen but no commentary,so you have to watch it inside,why they don’t combine their fixture with chelt to max race goers experience I don’t know,it’s like they don’t want to admit the gold cup is on. As for chelt Thursday a bit busy,but just about manageable.first 2 days great. As usual,no internet till after 4th race, So what is the point.if it’s being blocked,then block it all day,if it’s bandwidth,then pay open reach to increase bandwith,I presume the pitch bookies are fully on line to lay off bets,so it must be possible, If it’s deliberate,then block it all day,but then the big on line bookies need to consider sponsorship. Because of no internet,it sort of makes it pointless going,you can’t get any info,look at odds,form etc,and can’t bet, Big companies must be losing alot of traffic each day,yet paying chelt for sponsorship, The ladbrokes world hurdle,paddy power chase etc,yet their customers can’t bet with them. Bars,toilets,space all ok. No one queening,the stag party type crowd didn’t go Tuesday,Wednesday,but turned up Thursday,and presume Friday. The racing was good,but there is a feel that the quality is slightly weaker, 1/4 shot in champion hurdle etc. Cheltenham make a fortune,but looks to me that certain British trainers have given up on the hcps,the prize money and Irish challenge isn’t worth the entry,when you can win more prize money on a big Saturday hcp in an easier race,Nicholls seems to of done this, Given 14 of the most bet turnover races out of 20 all year are at chelt,then surely every hcp should be the best prize money for that type of event,weaken the grade 1 prize money a bit,they can hardly go to France or USA, Overall better than last year, But I think Cheltenham will decline more, The cost is a joke,but if less go,then they ll milk those that do even more, They ve never held ticket prices,up every year,drinks. Food the same,where will it end. Think they should freeze entry fees,limit crowd to 65k,and limit drinks to 7.00 , Promote all this and get 65k attendance each day, Unless they re set the whole thing,100% there will be less there next year. They have a chance now,whilst it just starting to decline,to sort it and halt it,but I doubt it Pointless paying for extra attractions like DJ s , Offer a pre paid drinks card at cheaper drinks 6.00 quid a drink if buy 5 ,30 quid,just flash the card, Why don’t they team up with itv and play their feed in between races etc, The racegoer is blind and deaf,if your there you don’t really know what’s going on, Surely in this day of technology,the names of the front 6 horses could be on the screen,altering up the run in,with GPS trackers updating it ,so viewers know which horse is which. How many times do you say to your mate,what’s this coming up the rail,then scramble around with your paper working out which horse it is,can’t hear commentary on run in cos of crowd cheers. They also only tell you first 4 in result,yet most bookies pay first 6/7.. Just put the full result up or at least first 6/7. They just plod on doing same thing every year,no one seems to want to improve the product,but they’re quick enough to increase the price, Irony is,can’t check result on phone cos there’s no internet, All these things are easy to solve and would make the experience better,but it’s just hassle going to chelt now,hence attendance drop,and it will drop next year,no matter how many constitution hills you have. |
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On the food,
I don’t know if this is still the situation,but the food vans didn’t used pay rent for their pitch,it’s free,the only condition was,they must also do the paddy power meeting,as chelt was trying to grow that meeting so needed food vans there. So the charges of food drinks can’t be justified because of high rents,like airports etc, So the van owners are literally just setting the highest price they think they can get away with. They say it’s comparable with other big sporting event prices,then quote Grand Prix,football,cricket etc. They then say 6 hours of sport ain’t bad for the price, But it’s 20 mins of sport really,with 40 mins fleecing breaks in between, And then to compare the x country,hunter chase ,women’s races ,it’s hardly elite sport.,then the elite races have 5-7 runners with a 1/4 shot,so it’s hardly competitive, So yeah,you can blag a weaker product,give price money less than a Saturday hcp,but why fleece your customers so much it deters them,it’s winter,cold,so the nice day out crowd won’t come. It’s in decline,they need to act now to stop it,or else it will fade. But like the fixture list,they ll wait 5 years to decide they need a steering group to look into the reason for the decline,then 3 years to form the group,then another 5 years to complete a report, Report findings will be, Everything 10-15% too expensive,no customer service regards info or involvement,internet a problem.. Simple basic fact,I went to Donny today,pint 6 quid,internet all day I’ll be going again next year. I won’t go chelt gold cup day,no internet,too busy,price fleecing,it’s not the money,it’s the cheek, |
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Jockey Club WiFi was fine for me on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Drinks are expensive , but not compulsory - £7.50 a pint. If you have 4 or 5 pints you've paid what ?- a tenner more than in a pub and probably about the same as in London. Eat a hearty breakfast and the food prices / quality are of no concern. We street park up about a 15-20 minute walk away and are in and out no problem. Service at all bars we used was quick - no more than 5 minutes ever and often served immediately. No queues for the loos. Walking around was busy at certain pinch points , but far far better than a few years ago. Yes - attendances were down - hopefully no price increases for next year. Buy your tickets early - we paid £52 a day for Tatts - cheap for a premier sporting event. (£80 ? on the day probably puts a few off) Minor gripe - do away with the leading horse numbers displayed on the video screen as the race is running - pointless and a distraction. (Bookie's prices are shocking , but we all know that before we go) Two fantastic days racing. |
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Midlands national richest hcp of last week.attendance 10k, 150k prize
Chelt attendance 60k, Most expensive pint of the week. You get the gist. |
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The attendance was well down on each day and contrary to what the racecourse tell you, I don't see any correalation between the rail and teachers strikes and the attendance as most people would have bought there tickets by the time that these strikes were announced. I would suggest that the cost of the tickets for each of the enclosures is more to blame, however this did make for nice comfortable crowds on both the Tuesday and the Wednesday.
As for the drinks prices £7.50 is more than most sporting events, Ascot for instance charged £6.50 at the Royal Meeting last year and that was for a pint of premium Peroni. I normally also attend various cricket internationals and T20 finals day and I am sure that the price of a pint at these is somewhere between £5 and £6. Prices used to be fine when the bars and catering were outsourced to Letherby and Christophers but since it has been brought in house by Jockey Club it increases by about 50p per pint a year. As for the catering the prices charged are ridiculous and the quality is extremely poor. I try to eat before setting foot on the racecourse now and not eat until I leave. On a positive note I found that moving around was quite easy and generally getting in and out of the toilets was quite easy, with the exception of the Vestey Bar, whoever thought it would be good to site a cocktail bar in the main throughfare to the toilets !! |
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My opening post was bang on,2 years of reduced attendance.
Cost really now is irrelevant,it is what it is,so it’s up to chelt to improve the experience,product.which they are trying to do. They 100% need to go to 5 days( calm down). Move the Wednesday to Saturday,en block.and Tuesday to Wednesday. Have a ballotted out card on the Tuesday for the main 6 hcps,thus not diluting the actual festival. People can chose to go to the new day if they want to,no graded races. Still think the middle of the course is under used,this could ease congestion,they allow it for the x country,why not let 5 k people over there ,cheaper tickets,cheaper beer etc.opposite best mate or next to last fence. Think it might hold its own next year,to stop the decline,if not,needs more changes. The course could do a guest house,coach,ticket deal from surrounding towns,Worcester,Malvern,stow,etc. 1 coach 50 people,1 bed ,1 ticket etc. Years ago,people used to stay in peoples spare rooms,in their houses,offered through tourist information.a lot of people did this, 50 quid with a breakfast in someone’s house.loads of residents seemed to offer it.think it’s stopped now. Let the towns people force the hotel prices down by competing with them. Think we’ve hit peak Mullins era,so there’ll be less odds on shots going forward. |
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Morning Mr Hilly, did you go Friday or Saturday? I was impressed with the upgrades around the course and in the bars. New carpets, furniture and creating more space for seating. It was well well well overdue !
I’m not sure moving Cheltenham to include Saturday will do anything to improve things. Just look at the Derby, there is plenty of commentators demanding it returns to Wednesday as attendance and TV audiences aren’t anything special. Building a grandstand or viewing area in the middle isn’t a great idea if you value the beautiful view of the track and Cleeve hill. That is never going to happen and ground is atrocious there so not possible. Like your idea of guesthouse, coach,ticket. But most guesthouses within 10 miles are already booked up so logistics of getting enough people in further out small villages to fill a coach causes problems. Locals do rent their rooms over Cheltenham. There are thousands of them each year through AirBNB. That is safer for home owners. Personally I’d prefer 5 thousand less people each day but understand for the good of racing we need to maximise revenue at Cheltenham. Hopefully the changes to the racing format will make the racing more competitive next festival and attendance improves. |
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Hib,the end goal is to max out the revenue whilst maintaining or improving the experience.
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The derby is one day,the weakest day has always been the weakest day,it dosent affect the 4 day goers.moving it to a Saturday would impact on no one.given there’s 20/30k people knocking about the area from Sunday onwards,a balloted out hcp day would be appealing,espically if cheaper tickets,more room,it would also not impact on the quality of the festival.to promote it as a seperate stand alone hcp day, would distance it from the festival.choice being Stratford class 4/5 races or Cheltenham non runners class 1/2 hcps.what they have changed is tinkering at the edges,and maybe it will stop the decline.all my surjestions don’t alter anything in a negative way,only offer more choice.why can’t the world hurdle day be run on a Saturday,wo7ld only improve this day,it wouldn’t impact on the gold cup,because the gold cup is the gold cup.new bars carpets etc all fine,but no one will come back cos the carpets are better.
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By running an hcp day on the Tuesday and moving the wed or thur to a Saturday,it’s basically a free hit 5 million quid.it literally affects no one,dosent impact on anything.their current tinkering might increase attendance by 5k over the 4 days,if they re lucky.
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