The Spirit Of The Cheltenham Festival
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Cheltenham Festival is four days of top class jump racing against the backdrop of the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire. For those four days it also becomes the second home to thousands of Irish race goers who journey across the “little pond” to England to follow the stars of jump racing. Even in Ireland everything grinds to a halt for Cheltenham. Of course the fact that St Patrick’s Day usually falls during Cheltenham Festival week helps greatly. When our village racehorse travelled across to Cheltenham our hopes were high and we were the proudest owners on the planet. Unfortunately our boy was pulled up as he swallowed his tongue but A.P. said he was travelling well – one of those things that are part of the festival’s melting pot of hard luck stories.

There is style to be had on and off the racecourse with lovely ladies parading their wonderful colourful outfits and hats on Ladies Day in the parade rings and stands while on the course sleek jump-bred racehorses, fit with their coats clipped dance with their necks arched waiting for the start. Cheltenham Festival is the pinnacle of racing for many small home-bred racehorses and trainers and those from the elite training stables. The festival environment is unique and electrifying and hearts are broken and mended in the area of a few of races.

The holy grail of jump racing is the Cheltenham Gold Cup which has been hotly contested by Irish and French raiders and English horses. It is the highlight of the week and is the culmination of years of bringing on a thoroughbred from local hunt races and point to factors and up through the grades until he is there with the wonderful turf beneath his feet, a slight sweat on his neck and flanks, jockey crouched low over his neck as he soars over the fences, galloping for home. The roar of the crowd carries him and his jockey on wings across the end line and the true Cheltenham spirit lives again.