Tuesday, March 6, 2007

THE FINAL 2007 CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL INFORMATION PACK


THE CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL - FACTS AND FIGURES

2. Betting
The Festival is a massively important betting event, and one that can fundamentally affect the annual profits of bookmakers. Indeed, so important is the Cheltenham Festival that in 2003 when favourites won half of the races at the meeting, The Festival was blamed by the major bookmaking firms for significantly lower than expected profits that year. Through their 8,500 betting shops, telephone betting and online operations, Britain's bookmakers put a great emphasis on the The Festival races. This year, over £500m (half a billion pounds!) will be staked on the outcome of the 24 races that make up The Festival. The Festival will also account for around 10% of the Tote's annual on-course turnover (not bad for four days' racing out of a fixture list consisting of over 1,300 meetings!), and millions of pounds change hands in the betting ring at the racecourse, with over 200 bookmakers in attendance for each day of The Festival.

3. Catering
Racecourse caterers Letheby & Christopher will serve some 20,000 bottles of champagne, 30,000 bottles of wine, 240,000 bottles of beer & lager, and 225,000 pints of Ireland's national drink, Guinness, as well as 10,000 gallons of tea and coffee.

Whilst around 10,000 people each day will sit down to three or four course lunches in the various restaurants and private facilities, the remainder of the crowd will eat into a pile of burgers, hot dogs and sandwiches, that if laid end to end, would stretch the entire length of the two and a half mile Ryanair Steeplechase, a full 4,500 yards! This amounts to 50,000 rounds of sandwiches, 46,000 bread rolls, 25,000 beefburgers and hotdogs, accompanied by 20,000 portions of chips!

4. Transport
When up to 70,000 people converge on Cheltenham, as they will on totesport Gold Cup day, they'll come in every form of transport you can imagine.

Race sponsor (and official airline to The Festival) Ryanair brings a vast throng of racegoers from Ireland, staging up to 20 additional flights to its normal schedule from Birmingham, Bristol and East Midlands.

Train operators First Great Western and Virgin Trains both run additional services throughout the week. And Cheltenham's very own steam railway brings several hundred spectators each day the eight miles from its station at nearby Toddington.

On a local level, taxi firms do significantly more business in Festival week than in any other week of the year.

Typically, 30,000 cars, 2,000 coaches and 50 stretch limos bring people to the races and in 2006 there were 649 helicopter landings at the course during the meeting.

And last, but by no means least, many people staying in town just walk to the racecourse - the best way to beat the traffic!

5. Cash
The racecourse is a place where a great deal of cash changes hands, whether this is in bars or at the betting booth. Except via Tote vouchers that can be purchased on the day, no bookmaker will accept a debit card on the racecourse, so best to come with banknotes! In 2006, over £1m was drawn from the 20 cashpoints around the site - replenishing the wallet, before returning to the battle against the bookies.

6. Staying in Cheltenham
Cheltenham Tourism estimates that around 10,000 beds each night are filled locally during Festival week, ranging from 4* hotels to local B & Bs. And nightclubs and bars around Cheltenham all benefit from the influx of free-spending racegoers.

Gloucestershire Tourism put the value of The Festival to the wider local economy at £50m.

7. Telecoms
With some reports putting mobile phone ownership at approaching 85% of the adult population, something like 45,000 people each day come to Cheltenham with a phone in their pocket. Small wonder therefore, that getting a signal is sometimes quite difficult, especially immediately before or after the biggest races!

However, all the major networks boost their signal for the event and this has helped to minimise the problem over the past couple of years.

8. Shopping
Being at The Festival is not just about the racing. There are 50 stands selling an array of goods from silverware to Spanish property, rocking horses to Wellington boots, sunglasses to portraits. With hundreds of thousands of pounds changing hands at the 2006 Festival, this really is a four-day micro-economy in its own right.

9. Sponsorship/Race Values
Prize money at this year's Festival is at a record level, £3,185,000. £1.5m of that total comes from race sponsors. Prize money at The 2007 Festival is £315,000 higher than in 2006.

Value of Major Races - 2006 vs 2007
2006 2007
totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup £400,000 £425,000
Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle £340,000 £360,000
Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase £290,000 £310,000
Ladbrokes World Hurdle £230,000 £250,000

JUMP RACING

The headline Jump events are among the top 10 sporting attendances in the UK. In 2006, 230,000 attended the Cheltenham Festival, bettered only by the 450,000 who attend the two weeks of Wimbledon.

2. Fixtures
Fixtures in Jump Racing have increased by over 50% from 2001 to 2007, with 544 fixtures planned this year.

3. More owners & trainers
There are now over 9,500 active racehorse owners, with almost 50,000 people involved in ownership through various co-ownership schemes. A growing horse population is a good barometer of health of the sport. In the five years since 2001, the number of owners has increased to almost 10,000 and the number of horses has increased to around 9,500.

4. An increasing International dimension
Jumping is primarily a domestic sport, attracting foreign competitors for key events like The Festival. However, this trend is diminishing, with the growth in prize money, the appeal of the major racecourses in the UK, and the growing economic wellbeing of owners in Ireland and France in particular. Owners from these countries are now targeting races in the UK every week.

5. Investing for the future
Over the four years to March, 2006, British racing as a whole has invested £420m in capital projects. A further £300m of projected capital investment is planned over the next five years.

Investment is not limited to buildings, however. Investment is made by individual courses and by the governing bodies in turf management, research and welfare techniques, and in the re-homing of racehorses after their racing careers are concluded.

Support doesn't stop with the equine athletes. Racing supports its broader family, through Racing Welfare, which offers financial support to former and injured riders, trainers and stable staff. The Injured Jockeys’ Fund assists jockeys past and present during periods of illness, injury or hardship. Moreover, JETS, the Jockeys Education & Training Scheme, provides grants to riders looking to retrain for a second career.

6. Attracting key commercial partners
Jump Racing has a broad spread of commercial sponsorship, from alcoholic beverages to bookmaking, finance to property, telecoms to recruitment and holidays to hotels. In 2006, total race sponsorship across the 41 British Jump courses totalled almost £7m, and this is augmented by other sponsorships of yards, individuals and other racing activity.

BONUSES AT THE FESTIVAL

BOYLESPORTS
£200,000 bonus payment for any horse winning both the Boylesports.com International and the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle in the same season. If won, this will be split £180,000 for the owner, £10,000 for the trainer and £10,000 for the successful yard’s stable staff. The winner of both races would therefore amass over £500,000. Detroit City won the Boylesports International on December 9 and is due to run in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle on Tuesday, March 13, for which he is currently ante-post favourite.

PADDY POWER
£50,000 for any horse that wins the paddypower.com INH Flat Race at Naas on February 25 and the Weatherbys Champion Bumper. This year’s Naas victor, the Tom Mullins-trained Bootlegger, holds a Weatherbys Champion Bumper entry. Hairy Molly (2006) and Pizarro (2002) have completed this double before.

PLUMPTON
£50,000 for any first-season chaser that wins at Plumpton and subsequently any race at The Festival. Voy Por Ustedes won the bonus last year.

SUNDERLANDS
£75,000 for any horse that wins the Sunderlands Imperial Cup at Sandown Park on Saturday, March 10, and goes on to win any race at The Festival. Olympian managed this in 1993 (Sunderlands Imperial Cup and the Coral Cup) while Blowing Wind in 1998 captured the Sunderlands Imperial Cup and the Vincent O’Brien County Hurdle.

THE 2007 FESTIVAL

For old articles (from 1st March 2000) go to the Newslink Archive

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