The origins of what is now known as the Cheltenham Festival can be traced back to the inaugural running of the Grand National Hunt Steeplechase at Market Harborough on April18, 1860. Market Harborough Racecourse staged its final meeting on March 26, 1863 but, under the auspices of the National Hunt Committee, which was established by the Jockey Club in 1865, the National Hunt Chase continued to be staged, at various venues, until 1911. Cheltenham Racecourse was established, in its modern guise, by landowner William Baring Bingham in 1898 and hosted the first two-day ‘National Hunt Meeting’ in mid-April 1902. Back-to-back renewals of the National Hunt Chase were staged at Prestbury Park in 1904 and 1905 and, in 1907, the erstwhile ‘National Hunt Meeting’ was renamed the ‘National Hunt Festival’, at the behest of the Jockey Club.
That same year, the Steeplechase Company (Cheltenham) Limited was incorporated, under the chairmanship of Frederick Cathcart, who would remain at the helm until his death in 1934, and oversee the introduction of several major races during his tenure. In 1911, Baring Bingham offered the National Hunt Chase a permanent home at Cheltenham and running of that race effectively marked the nascence of the modern Cheltenham Festival. Under the advocacy of Cathcart, the Festival continued to flourish and, as the result of its popularity, was extended from two days to three in 1923. The Champion Hurdle was inaugurated in 1924 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years later, in 1927.
Notwithstanding the introduction of the ‘New’ Course, which was first used in 1967, the Cheltenham Festival remained a three-day event until 2005. Approval for a four-day Festival was received from the National Hunt Committee and Race Planning Committee of the British Horseracing Board (BHB) in February 2003. The initial format was four days of six races apiece, making 24 races in all, with a feature race – namely the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, World Hurdle (now Stayers’ Hurdle) and Cheltenham Gold Cup – on each day.
When the plans came to fruition, in 2005, the five new additions to the Festival programme were the Spa Novices’ Hurdle, Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, Cross Country Chase, Festival Trophy and, now-defunct, Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase. The last named contest, run over an extended two and a half miles, had various sponsors, most recently Northern Trust, but was removed from the programme in 2021, in favour of the Liberthine Mares’ Chase (nowadays known, for sponsorship purposes, as the Mrs. Paddy Power Mares’ Chase), which is run over the same distance. The Centenary Novices’ Handicap Chase was transferred to Sandown Park, where it is staged on Imperial Cup Day, immediately before the Cheltenham Festival.
Arguably the most notable addition was the Festival Trophy, nowadays better known as the Ryanair Chase, having been sponsored by the low-cost Irish carrier since 2006. Also run over an extended two and a half miles, on the New Course at Prestbury Park, the Ryanair Chase was promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008, and rivals the Stayers’ Hurdle as the ‘feature’ race of the day on St. Patrick’s Thursday.
The Spa Novices’ Hurdle, which was also promoted to Grade 1 status in 2008, is run over three miles, also on the New Course. The Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, by contrast, is a Premier Handicap, run over an extended two miles on the Old Course. And, most idiosyncratic of all, the Cross Country Chase, nowdays sponsored by Glenfarclas, is a weight-for-sex conditions race, run over an extended three and three-quarter miles and 32 unique fences and obstacles, including banks, ditches and railed hedges.