- Do you know what "steeplechasing" is? If not, read on...
It is a matter of weeks until the 2022 Cheltenham Festival begins. It’s the four-day horseracing festival that’s often dubbed the ‘World Cup of Jump Racing’, with thoroughbreds from far and wide venturing to this corner of south-west England for a piece of the steeplechase action. Already the leading tipsters and analysts prepping their data in readiness for providing daily tips throughout the festival, pinpointing the latest betting trends and odds movements to get the best value for your picks.
Given the magnitude of this event on the British sporting calendar, you might not be surprised that there have been many weird and wonderful moments at the Cheltenham Festival. Through the years, we’ve seen some memorable incidents both on and off the racecourse. Within this article, we’ll explore some of those, as well as the outrageous facts and figures from recent festivals that’ll whet your appetite if you’ve got a ticket for the 2022 festival.
Annie Power: The most ‘expensive fall in racing history’
Much-loved jockey Ruby Walsh was a sure-fire favorite to win the Mares’ Hurdle at the 2015 Cheltenham Festival. Walsh was aboard the hugely impressive Annie Power and the duo looked on course to a comfortable win when Annie Power inexplicably fell at the final jump with the finishing post in sight. The on-course and online bookmakers breathed a collective sigh of relief, given that the fall reportedly saved the bookies from paying out over £50m combined were Annie Power to go on and win. Ruby Walsh had a great win record aboard horses trained by Willie Mullins, which was why the Mullins-trained Annie Power attracted such interest from punters.
Olympian Victoria Pendleton moves from track cycling to steeplechasing
Victoria Pendleton is a British Olympic icon. The former Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth track cycling champion decided to turn her hand to National Hunt racing some three years after retiring from professional cycling. Pendleton, who received CBE for her services to cycling in 2013, entered the St James’ Palace Foxhunters Chase at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival. When announcing her goal in April 2015, Pendleton had never ridden a horse before in her life. Yet the following year she was on board Pacha Du Polder and led them to a highly credible fifth place finish, which Pendleton described as “probably the greatest achievement of [her] life”.
Dental practice owner and amateur jockey scoops the 2011 Gold Cup
The Gold Cup has long been the most talked about race in the Cheltenham Festival schedule. Staged on the fourth and final day of the festival, it is the ideal showpiece race to close the event. In 2011, all the talk was of AP McCoy and Barry Geraghty battling it out at the front, with no-one batting an eyelid at amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen. The dental practice owner and part-time jockey stunned the racing world by winning the 2011 aboard Long Run.
Norton’s Coin’s moment in the Cheltenham sun in 1990
The Gold Cup has thrown up several unfancied wins through the years, but none more unexpected than the 100/1 rank outsider Norton’s Coin. Owned by a Welsh dairy farmer, Sirrell Griffiths, Norton’s Coin ran the race of his life to bag the 1990 Gold Cup. Conditions must have been just to his liking as he would only go on to win one of his following 18 races before retirement.
Cheltenham Festival worth £100m to the local economy
In 2015, a study found that the Cheltenham Festival was worth a whopping £100 million to the local economy of Cheltenham. In 2020, David Jackson, manager of Marketing Cheltenham, described the festival as “hugely important to the town and [its] visitor economy”. The town welcomes over 250,000 people to its racecourse during the four-day festival, with leisure and hospitality businesses on the edge of the Cotswolds reaping the benefits.
Over a quarter-of-a-million pints of Guinness consumed throughout the festival
Cheltenham Festival attracts many racegoers, jockeys and horses from the Emerald Isle. That’s why pints of Guinness prove to be particularly popular throughout the festival. A staggering 265,000 pints of the ‘black stuff’ are consumed during the four-day meeting. That’s across all hospitality and general admission settings.
A quick glance at these bizarre tales and numbers serves to underline the cultural importance of the Cheltenham Festival to the British and Irish horseracing community.