Second only in the horse racing calendar to the Grand National, the Cheltenham Festival was first staged way back in 1860. Now in its 156th year, The Festival™ is home to several of the worlds most famous races including the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and of course arguably the biggest of them all, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Some £150 million was bet on races over the four day extravaganza in 2015. And so it is no wonder punters are now heading to online bookmakers to check out odds for 2016 Cheltenham festival races. But aside from the horse-racing Cheltenham is as much about the people and atmosphere as it is about the racing and the horses.
The festival is the place to see, and be seen, Ladies day in particular is a fashionistas delight and did you know there are over £10k in prizes awarded to the best dressed lady?
This years festival runs from 15th-18th March 2016 and looks like this
March 15 – Champion Hurdle – Day 1 Cheltenham Racecourse
March 16 – Cheltenham Ladies – Day 2 Cheltenham Racecourse
March 17 – St Patrick’s – Day 3 Cheltenham Racecourse
March 18 – Gold Cup – Day 4 Cheltenham Racecourse
Just before you go, here’s a few interesting facts about arguably the most important Racing event of the year.
Hats
There’s an old saying… if you want to get a head, get a hat and last year at the Cheltenham Festival, young royal Zara Phillips was setting the trends with a deep blue coat and a stylish matching hat.
Guinness
Ever since it began the Cheltenham Festival has been hugely popular with Irish racing fans. It’s thought up to 10,000 of them make the journey every year and could also explain why over the course of the festival more than 250,000 pints of Guinness are served.
Food
Besides the Guinness visitors to the festival also enjoy tucking into over a ton of beef, 45,000 sandwiches and over 8,500 sticky toffee puddings, washed down by some 11,000 bottles of champagne.