Cheltenham Festival 2021 jump racings biggest week
The Cheltenham Festival - when is it, where is it, who and what should I look out for across the four days?
First things first the Cheltenham Festival 2021 takes place Tuesday 16th March – Friday 19th March at Cheltenham Racecourse, Prestbury Park, Evesham Rd, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 4SH.
This year there will be a total of 28 races over the four days, 7 races each day.
No racegoers can be there this year of course but you can watch coverage on ITV with ITV Racing who will be showing six races each day on ITV from 1pm-4pm with their The Opening Show on ITV4 each morning at 9.30am. Racing TV will cover the entire meeting so if you subscribe you will get all the races everyday.
Usually, the town is quite literally taken over by the horse racing tribe for the week, the record total attendance for the meeting being 266,557 over the four-days in 2019.
It’s not just the stars of the horse racing world that you are likely to bump into, when we can all go back next year hopefully. You can always find a smattering of film and TV famous faces, sports stars and a reality star or two present as well (someone has to point out the Love Island guys to me).
One Cheltenham Festival race you must watch each day
Tuesday
The Champion Hurdle is the dish of the day on Tuesday over two-miles.
Wednesday
The Queen Mother Champion Chase is the main event of day-two and in fact probably my favourite race of the four-days.
Thursday
Since the Festival became four-days The Stayers Hurdle has been the race of the day on the Thursday though the Ryanair Chase is seen as many as just a big an event.
Friday
It is the blue riband race of the jumps game The Gold Cup. Run over a distance of 3 miles 2½ furlongs with 22 fences to be jumped it is a real test and winners can take on legendary status in the horse racing game. Golden Miller is the most successful horse in the race winning an amazing five consecutive years between 1932 and 1936. In more recent time Best Mate won three in a row in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Girdys Gee Gees will naturally be covering the four days and all the bets for each of the 28 races can be found on the dedicated page: http://www.girdysgeegees.com/cheltenham-festival-2021