Ladies Day, prosecco and cheaper Guinness: Cheltenham chiefs ring the changes
Ladies Day will return to the iconic Cheltenham Festival next year for the first time since 2019 as female racegoer numbers surge, the Jockey Club has confirmed.
The Gloucestershire racing meet, home to the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup, switched from Ladies Day to Style Wednesday for the 2020 festival.
But the Jockey Club has reverted to tradition, albeit the associated Style Awards – which offers more than £10,000 in prizes – will remain. It is a part of a number of sweeping changes made to the four-day event at Cheltenham racecourse, a bastion of jump racing.
The price of a pint of Guinness will be cut from £7.80 to £7.50 – matching the lowest price point since 2022 – after criticism from racegoers last year, while general restrictions on where fans can drink have been liberalised. The Festival will also sell prosecco for the first time ever.
Sweeping Cheltenham changes
Furthermore the daily capacity of the course has been reduced from 68,500 to 66,000 in the hope of allowing fans to enjoy more space across the meet, although only Gold Cup day saw more than 55,500 fans in 2025 (68,026).
Cheltenham Racecourse chief executive Guy Lavender said the meet “is the jewel in the crown of jump racing”, adding “over the coming seasons we’ll explore everything from racecourse layout, our enclosure structure and membership offerings”.
He added: “The changes announced today mark another meaningful step forward, but it is always important to listen to your customers and evolve, and I can guarantee that there will be further changes for 2027.”
Organisers will have one eye on the 2028 Gold Cup, which will be the 100th running of the Grade One National Hunt horse race.
The Gavin Cromwell-trained Inothewayurthinkin won this year’s edition of most valuable non-handicap chase in Britain by six lengths ahead of pre-race favourite Galopin Des Champs, a horse which was aiming to win the Friday race for a third consecutive year.