Cheltenham Racecourse is a racecourse for horse racing
events, located at Prestbury Park, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. Its most
prestigious meeting is the Cheltenham Festival, held in March, which features
several Grade I races including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen
Mother Champion Chase and World Hurdle.
The racecourse has a scenic location in a natural
amphitheatre just below the escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at Cleeve Hill,
with a capacity of 67,500 spectators. The racecourse also has its own steam
railway station, although this no longer connects to the national rail network
but has since rather been the current southern terminus of the preserved
Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.
The main racecourse has two separate courses alongside each
other, the Old Course and the New Course. The New Course has a tricky downhill
fence and a longer run-in for steeplechases than the Old Course. Hurdle races
over two miles on the New Course also have a slight peculiarity in that most of
the hurdles are jumped early on in the race with only two hurdles being jumped
in the last seven furlongs.
There is also a cross-country course which is laid out
inside the main racecourse and is used for cross-country steeplechases.
The racecourse is the home of The Centaur, one of the
largest auditoria in the South West of England. This multiple-use complex seats
over 2,000 people for conferences and around 4,000 standing for concerts. It is
also home to the Steeplechasing Hall of Fame. From 1999 to 2013 the racecourse
was the venue for the annual Greenbelt festival and remains the venue for the
Wychwood Music Festival. The University of Gloucestershire holds its graduation
ceremony and summer ball at the racecourse.
From 2008, the racecourse and "The Jockey Club"
were in talks with Cheltenham Town F.C. about a possible move to the
racecourse. This would have meant the building of a new stadium with a double
sided stand, one side in the stadium and the other for watching the races.
Talks went on for a while but in December 2011, Cheltenham Town F.C. decided
against the move due to the financial gap, which the football club's chairman
Paul Baker described as "in the millions".
On 19 July 2013, Cheltenham Racecourse is to have a £45m
redevelopment and is to include a new 6,500-capacity grandstand and royal box
has been unanimously approved by planners and work is now well under way.
Tipster Street.
