Racing

Cheltenham day three crowd down 7,000 on last year

Just under 54,000 came through the gates on a day when the home team struck back at Prestbury Park

Runners and riders in action during the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle on day three of the Cheltenham Festival. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images

Brian O'Connor at Cheltenham
Thu Mar 14 2024 - 19:40

The Cheltenham Festival’s day three attendance of 53,918 was another slide on last year’s corresponding figure of over 61,000.

It comes on the back of Wednesday’s alarming dip in crowd figures to less than 47,000. Tuesday’s opening day attendance was just over 60,000. The festival capacity at Cheltenham is 68,500.

It continues last year’s trend which saw a 14 per cent drop in overall festival attendance compared to 2022′s record total of over 280,000 people through the gates.

In other news, Harry Skelton’s Grade One double on Thursday took him to four winners for the week alongside Paul Townend.

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The English jockey has a single ride on Friday, the fancied L’eau du Sud in the County Hurdle, while Townend has five spins to look forward to, including the Gold Cup favourite Galopin Des Champs.

Skelton’s brother, Dan, is also at four winners for the week and trails Willie Mullins by two in the leading trainer award. Henry de Bromhead is next with two.

Going into the final day of the festival, the Prestbury Cup scoreline is 12-8 in Ireland’s favour with seven races left. There are 27 races at this year’s festival following the abandonment of the Cross-Country race on Wednesday.

The going on the New Course remains soft and clerk of the course Jon Pullin said on Thursday evening: “I’ve spoken to the forecasters and we might get some showers on and off through the night. They were a little bit cautious about tomorrow as there might be some rain in the morning, but we will get an updated forecast then.

“We won’t change from soft at the moment. We will reassess in the morning once we have seen what we have had overnight. There is a little bit of uncertainty as to how much will fall, so I wouldn’t want to commit to anything until the morning.”

Separately, Hewick is only “50-50″ to run in next month’s Grand National after being taken out of the Cheltenham Gold Cup by trainer Shark Hanlon.

The Co Carlow trainer decided ground conditions are too soft for his popular star and he now faces a choice between aiming the horse at the National or running him in the Grade One Aintree Bowl a couple of days earlier. Hewick is topweight for the National.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision. I walked the track twice this morning, it’s not going to get any better than it is as they’re giving rain again tonight.

“It’s disappointing to get this far, but we’ll head to Aintree now and I’d say it’s 50-50 between the National and the Bowl, it’ll be one or the other.

“I’d say after missing here I’d be turning towards the Bowl. I’d love to give him another chance at a Gold Cup, and I’d hate for him to get hurt in the National [without getting that].

“He’s in great shape, the horse has never been as well in himself. It’s a hard decision to make as the horse travelled over and the owners have all landed in, but we’ve made the decision,” Hanlon reported.

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor is the racing correspondent of The Irish Times. He also writes the Tipping Point column

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