Is the Cheltenham Festival due a schedule rejig?

Making Cheltenham Great Again – is it time for the Festival to revamp its racing schedule?

By Ben Linfoot

Horse Racing

Wed February 04, 2026 · 12h ago

Ben Linfoot puts himself into chief executive Guy Lavender’s shoes and rejigs the Cheltenham Festival schedule in this week’s column.

Even when faced with adversity the Dublin Racing Festival came up smelling of roses. Saturday off due to incessant rain? No problem. How envious British racing must be of having such flexibility to simply move the card to the Monday.

The DRF hasn’t been without its issues since inception in 2018, though. The excellent drainage at Leopardstown might well have allowed this year’s meeting to go ahead, albeit 24 hours later than planned after over 200mm of rain in the build-up, but in some years they have suffered high-profile non-runners and small fields in the Grade 1s because of quick ground.

Alas, perfection when it comes to conditions at this time of year is hard to come by and so is a British-trained runner at the DRF. After Haiti Couleurs’ no-show Britain were left with one sole contender at the whole meeting, Fergal O’Brien’s Siog Geal in the Listed Mares Handicap Hurdle on Sunday, where she finished an honourable fifth.

Perhaps the wet weather was a factor in the paltry contingent, perhaps not. But with Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott carving things up with five wins apiece you do feel if the DRF is to grow even bigger in the years to come the British-based trainers need to embrace it at least a little more.

Indeed, as briefly discussed last week, they could be harming their chances of Cheltenham Festival success if they continue to ignore such a top-level preparation.

However, having gone over for plenty of DRFs and having watched this year’s from the sofa, it’s clear Leopardstown are getting plenty right. And above all else it’s hard to ignore the fact that clustering so many Grade 1 races together in one weekend is a winning formula.

Will Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins dominate again?

Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins dominated the DRF

It’s a simple one, but they are the best days, aren’t they? Royal Ascot day one. Queen Anne, Coventry (admittedly a Group 2), King Charles III, St James’s Palace Stakes. Bang, bang, bang, bang. The Breeders’ Cup, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe meeting, Champions Day, bangers everywhere you look. Championship events that look and feel like championship events.

Which brings me to the Cheltenham Festival.

Now, I’m not here to bash the best four days in the jumps racing calendar. Like most racing fans, I love the Cheltenham Festival, but like everything it has had its challenges in recent years and the meeting’s attendances since the pandemic have seen such a significant drop off that they can’t be ignored.

And with credit to Cheltenham and the Jockey Club, they aren’t being ignored.

Much of the drop off has been accredited to outside factors like extortionate hotel prices and that’s a tricky one for Cheltenham to solve, even with package deals and so forth, but they did announce a raft of measures last autumn to improve the racegoer experience and things like £7.50 a Guinness, attendance caps and car park upgrades were all broadly welcomed.

But bar the odd switch of a race (the Mares’ Hurdle is now on the Thursday instead of the Tuesday, for example) the actual schedule has not changed too much at all over the years when in reality it could benefit hugely for a radical shake up.

Like the one I’ve cooked up below.

Wednesday – Cheltenham Festival Day 1

CHAMPION HURDLE DAY

G1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
G1 Arkle Novices Chase
G1 Ryanair Chase
G1 Champion Hurdle
Ultima Handicap Chase
Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
Kim Muir Handicap Chase

Thursday – Cheltenham Festival Day 2

CHAMPION CHASE DAY

G1 Turners Novices’ Hurdle
G1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase
G1 Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle
G1 Champion Chase
The old ‘Coral’ Cup Handicap Hurdle
Plate Handicap Chase
National Hunt Novices’ Handicap Chase

Friday – Cheltenham Festival Day 3

GOLD CUP DAY

G1 Triumph Hurdle
G1 Champion Bumper
G1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle
G1 Cheltenham Gold Cup
County Hurdle Handicap
Grand Annual Handicap Chase
Martin Pipe Conditionals Handicap Hurdle

Saturday – Cheltenham Festival Day 4

MARES’ FESTIVAL SATURDAY

Grade 2 Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
Grade 2 Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase
Grade 1 Mares’ Hurdle
Cross Country Handicap Chase
Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase
Pertemps Handicap Hurdle
Festival Hunters’ Chase

Okay, last things first, the Festival on a Saturday? I know, but it seems inevitable.

Cheltenham said last October they were beginning to look at a concept where the Festival ended on a Saturday and with those falling attendances in mind, you can see why. It opens up the Festival to a whole new audience who work Monday to Friday, for starters, and the bottom line is, well, the bottom line.

Whether you like it or not, I think the accountants will win this one eventually, for all that factions like the TV companies and the bookmakers have expressed concerns, but it could work out well.

How? Not by simply shunting the Festival along a day, but by looking at the schedule from scratch, serving up a showcase day for a Saturday audience while delivering an undisputable premium experience on days one to three.

You could do this by ending with a ‘Mares Festival Saturday’, grouping together all the mares races on one day. That way you can really ring fence the crown jewels that are the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup earlier in the week.

Certainly, a ‘Mares Festival Saturday’ would be a point of contention. Are the weekend crew getting short-changed beyond what is reasonable? Would MFS accelerate Cheltenham’s switch to ITV4 whether it was the final weekend of the 6 Nations or not?

Both are valid concerns worth debating, but it’s still a good card, it shines the spotlight on the mares and, let’s be honest, a Cheltenham Festival Saturday would sell out whatever the programme (I realise this wouldn’t be in the official press release).

I have wondered in the past whether Cheltenham would be better off removing the mares races from the Festival altogether in order to preserve races like the Champion Hurdle, getting the best mares to compete against the best for the good of top-level competition.

But again, this feels like a battle that can’t be won. There’s no denying the revamped mares programme across the sport in the last 20 years has been a success and having the chance to have a Cheltenham Festival runner, away from the elite championship races, is a huge part of the appeal of having a mare in training.

Could the likes of Lossiemouth carry a Cheltenham Festival Saturday?

And look at what a Mares Festival Saturday does for the first three days. Oh boy. Racing fans, this is the great gift of MFS my friends. Just look at that.

Four Grade 1s to kick off each day Wednesday to Friday. If that doesn’t make you feel like you are at a premium tier championship event then I don’t know what does.

This is really leaning into the Cheltenham Festival’s USP, and why not? We are forever told that Cheltenham is the Olympics of horse racing, the World Cup of jumps racing, but does it really feel like it when you’ve got the Fred Winter and the Ultima leading into the Champion Hurdle? The (old) Coral Cup and the Cross Country as the hors d’ouevre to the Champion Chase?

For me, it doesn’t. But a bombardment of Grade 1 beauties to begin each day does.

There’s been more than one occasion at the Festival over the last few years where the atmosphere has felt a bit flat going into races like the Champion Hurdle and the Champion Chase. There are other factors at play here, of course; horse populations, the domination of elite trainers, even the weather, but while a radical schedule tweak won’t fix everything I’d wager a flurry of Grade 1s all positioned together would get the place absolutely buzzing.

I like that the Champion Hurdle gets the support of the Ryanair and ditto the Champion Chase with the Stayers’ Hurdle.

Both ‘crown jewel’ races are having their challenges but here they remain the main event, getting the day named after them, positioned in the coveted fourth slot on the card while supported by other Grade 1 championship races that have grown in stature in the modern era.

Finishing each day with the handicaps is fine, glorious puzzles for the punters after the Grade 1 show is done, while Cheltenham Gold Cup day stands alone in that the feature race is the only open championship contest that day while supported by horses for the future in the Triumph, Champion Bumper and Albert Bartlett.

The Cheltenham Festival remains brilliant sport, but ask anyone who used to go when it was three days – it used to be even better.

With a fifth day now looking a long way off for very obvious reasons, the Saturday switch could be the new thing that those who love the Festival fear most. But maybe we should embrace it. Maybe a schedule revamp is long overdue. Maybe we can Make Cheltenham Great Again.

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Making Cheltenham Great Again – is it time for the Festival to revamp its racing schedule?