On the eve of the new season at Cheltenham, David Ord spoke to Chief Executive Guy Lavender about the challenges they face - and where they are building key momentum.
It’s fair to say the season 2025/2026 wasn’t without incident for Cheltenham Racecourse.
The hole that appeared on the course on Trials Day was the first sign of a drainage issue that led to officials cancelling their April Meeting to allow work to get under way on the repairs to ensure the venue was ready to open for business for the current campaign.
And the good news is after 1,000 metres of drainage was replaced, they very much are.
Because Cheltenham matters, it matters an awful lot in our little world. People seem to care about it much more than any other leading venue. Everyone has an opinion on what the track can do to bring the perceived glory days back. Our website has carried countless articles on the subject over recent years.
And it was in danger of losing it’s mojo. Attendance figures were down at the Festival post-Covid, what used to be the hottest ticket in town was turning lukewarm.
The Racecourse vowed to listen to all feedback and control the controllables. The costs of hotels in the area is out of their grasp for example, the racegoer experience when they come through the gates isn’t.
And that’s been a key focus for Chief Executive Guy Lavender since he took over in the hotseat in January 2024. And the dials are moving in the right direction again, not only in terms of how people feel about their day at the races, but through the numbers rolling up to Prestbury Park at each and every meeting.
Last season there was a 3.7% increase in the Festival attendance, a jaw-dropping 44,151 people were there on New Year’s Day. It’s easy to see why Lavender can feel the momentum building again.
“I think the changes we introduced last year went really well. We really invested to try and make sure our racegoers had a better experience, that we delivered value for racegoers and that was reflected very strongly in the data we get back in terms of feedback, and we track all sorts of analytics too," he said.
“And they were significantly up on the previous year about how people felt about the racecourse, the experience they’d had. People were positive and the theme of this year is to grow on that, develop on it throughout the season and improve on the numbers again.
“There are things that people really care about. They care about value for money, about the price of things, they want to be able to get into the racecourse easily, get under cover in inclement weather, enjoy top quality racing and enjoy entertainment and experiences afterwards.
“We spend a lot of time analysing all the data we get back collectively and we’re also very responsive to individuals' comments and feedback we get around the racecourse. We think very carefully about what we’re trying to do and how we improve things.”
A new raft of Membership packages were offered for the new campaign, and in line with 2025/2026, the early signs are encouraging.
“A lot of work went into the new membership model, driven by two factors. How can we make membership the cheapest we possibly can for racegoers that want to come and enjoy all race meetings or a large proportion of them over the year? And how can we improve the experience for some of our members in facilities that were overcrowded and not really where we though they should be before?
“We did both of those things over the course of this year. The Favourite Membership, which effectively is the lowest tier membership, is selling well, it’s a very good price point for the full season. And our facilities that we wanted to make better have all sold out in the Princess Royal Stand, the Insurance Bar, in our Business Club, which is great.
“While there’s been a big change in this area, we feel we’re moving in the right direction but we’ll see how we go and tweak and adjust things if we need to, we want to make sure the offer is right for everyone.”
And getting it right is vital for Lavender and his team as significant investment is around the corner.
“We’re starting to make quite a lot of investment into different facilities already at the racecourse. We’ve refurbished all of the bars in the grandstands for the new season for example, which is really important, and not just given them a lick of paint," he said.
“There are new spaces, the ability to get drinks more quickly, increasing the seating provision in bars, that’s been a big bit of work over the summer. There’s been a big investment into the PA system to ensure the sound quality across all the racecourse is good. We’re refurbishing restaurants, The Retreat, which is a big undercover space we put in for the first time last season, was really well received.
“So we’re going to get that up and ready for the November Meeting so there’s spaces to get under cover and this is the starting point for a wider significant piece of investment which we’re making into the racecourse over the next four or five years.
“Racegoers will really notice the difference over the course of this season and next and next.”
And there’s more to come, talk of developing the Weighing Room including the area above it, Cheltenham isn’t standing still. It can’t.
If improving the experience is a key mantra for all they do, maintaining the quality of the action on the track is equally important.
“That’s vital, If you look at all the data that we analyse, from racegoers who are coming to our meetings, whether it be the Festival or the other cards, the racing is absolutely paramount to them," Lavender continues.
“We attract very much a racing audience and we know maintaining the quality of our programme, continuing to reassess it, doing a lot of work to make sure that product is where we need it to be, is fundamental. We think it’s the core driver for the sport and we want to keep it in the top position.”
Attracting the best horses to Gloucestershire in March has never been – and never will be – a problem. But those four days are placed under more scrutiny than any other fixture through the calendar year. It's a meeting rightly or wrongly that's held up as a barometer for the health of the sport in general. Is it a burden Lavender and the team are comfortable with?
“Very much so,” he says. "It’s an enormous privilege and a great responsibility. We know how important it is, the showcase meeting, the Olympics of jumps racing as some people describe it and it’s vital we get it right. We are responsible for setting the theatre if you like for some of the greatest moments in sport and we need to deliver.”
He is speaking in a quiet corner of the Tommy Atkins bar, named to commemorate the British soldiers stationed at the racecourse during World War I.
Outside Jon Pullen is talking TV crews through the drainage work of the summer, the headaches the drought of 2026 has caused too. But there’s news of rain on the horizon and forecast good to soft ground at the weekend. The sun is beating down. Cheltenham feels ready.
The Chief Executive is about to embark on year three of his initial five-year plan. There’s always been a passion for racing but this is his first significant post working within the sport.
It’s notoriously difficult to turn any wheel quickly in horse racing but how does Lavender feel about the progress being made? Is he on track?
“It’s been incredibly enjoyable so far, not without challenge inevitably, but really exciting,” he says. “Racing is a fantastic sport and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the racing family and the people around the sport. It’s a great privilege to be at the racecourse and when I arrived I set out a five-year plan to drive the level of racegoer experience to where we wanted it to be and to invest in the facilities.
“I think we’re where we want to be on that journey and we’re certainly looking forward to delivering more improvements in the coming months and years.
“Great racing is what fundamentally what Cheltenham is about. That’s what we’re really looking forward to. The highest-quality racing product and then hopefully those experience scores can continue to go up. Because we are going to continue to work extremely hard to make sure we give people brilliant experiences when they come to any of our meetings and that of course includes the Festival in March.”
The Road to which begins in earnest for many on Friday at a racecourse which is looking forwards not backwards as they prepare to throw open their doors once again.
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