As The Festival 2015 draws to a close, find Ian Renton, physician Regional Director of Jockey Club Racecourses, malady described it as “an absolutely wonderful week”.
“We have had fantastic crowds – a record on each of the first three days and significantly up on previous years while today has been a sell-out since March 3. Racegoers are really happy with the changes we are making here,” Renton said. “As part of the redevelopment, we have tried to create more space behind the main grandstands and at the same time redevelop the tented village to provide a more spacious area.
“Even with a crowd of 63,000 on the first day of The Festival, Tuesday, and nearly 61,000 yesterday (Thursday), everyone felt comfortable. The bars have worked, the queues are less and people feel it is a much easier environment to enjoy their racing.”
Feedback from the public attending each day has been excellent, Renton commented. “It has been lovely – not only have we had tremendous racing, but the reaction of the racegoers has been great. I have had literally hundreds of people coming up to say how pleased they are with the changes and how it has transformed Cheltenham.”
Among the improvements for this year have been new restaurants, additional viewing space around the paddock and a new Brightwells pavilion for owners and trainers.
“It is the first time we have given lunch for free to connections with horses running at the meeting, and that has been incredibly well received,” said Renton.
The new grandstand is under construction, with the ground floor being used for a temporary bar this year and the 156 toilets on the lower ground floor in use.
Renton said: “By next year’s Festival, we will have the Cheltenham Club on the top floor, which will be a wonderful facility for people to buy a year-round experience of Cheltenham. The annual boxes are largely all sold, then below that we have fantastic facilities for all categories of racegoers. The owners and trainers will have an area with viewing, a bar and a dining facility, and the people who were in the A&R boxes have got a facility on the same floor which will allow them viewing and tables throughout the year.
“Moving down through the stand, a there will be a great facility for annual members overlooking the course, and a new champagne bar, and finally the ground floor bar will be properly kitted out and will be a really fantastic bar for all Club racegoers. We’ll have it all in really good shape for next year.”
Attendance on a sold-out Gold Cup Day today came to 68,918 – up from 67,814 in 2014. The total attendance figure for the four-day meeting was 248,521 a new record, as against 232,340 last year. The previous highest total for The Festival was 237,369 in 2012.