THE JOCKEY CLUB

Few events in the racing calendar capture the imagination quite like today’s feature race, the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase. Over the years some of the sport’s biggest names have claimed victory in the race and we can’t wait to see who will be the next to add their name to the prestigious roster. Among them will be Energumene, last year’s winner with Edwardstone and Editeur du Gite leading the British challenge

Festival Wednesday also offers something unique in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase Delta Work, the horse who dashed Tiger Roll’s chances of a final Cheltenham Festival victory last year, lines up once again and is favourite to take home the prize

As always, our thanks go to our race day sponsors who continue to support this wonderful event. Today, they include Ballymore, Brown Advisory, Coral, Betway, Glenfarclas and Weatherbys. We wish them all a wonderful day with us

We are honoured to once again be working with WellChild, our official charity partners for 2023. WellChild do amazing work across the country with seriously ill children, and their headquarters are based right here in Cheltenham.

Once again, our punters panel will be live from the parade ring before racing, providing you with their tips for this afternoon’s action. In the same location just before 1pm, the electric string quartet Escala will be performing a set, providing the perfect warm-up for a brilliant day of racing. After the last, Tommy and the Fuse will be ready and waiting to entertain you all in

The Centaur, so make sure you head over to keep the party going!

Undoubtedly one of the most special moments of the Cheltenham Festival is when the tape goes up on the first race of the day and the Cheltenham Roar is unleashed This year, we’ve teamed up with DJ Cuddles to produce a remix of the iconic sound To see the track played to a live audience for the first time, head over to the Best Mate Pavilion this afternoon where none other than DJ Cuddles himself will be performing a live set from 3.30pm – 5pm.

We’re delighted to announce that after a successful launch at the November Meeting, the ‘Love Our Turf’ campaign has returned for the four days of the Cheltenham Festival. The initiative seeks to reinforce and strengthen the relationship between the Home of Jump Racing and our local community. This will be most notable across all main routes back to the town, where you will find wayfinding ushers, street entertainment, enhanced cleaning and an increased number of toilets along the way

We’d like to sign-off by thanking each and every one of you for joining us for what is the highlight of our calendar. The impact the event and your attendance has on the local community is staggering, with a new report carried out by The University of Gloucestershire revealing that in 2022, The Festival brought an estimated £274million to the local economy.

For now, we wish you a memorable day with us and hope to see you all again very soon.

MARTIN ST QUINTON IAN RENTON Chairman Regional Director

T: 01242 513 014

E: cheltenham-races@thejockeyclub.co.uk

Races

4, 6 & 7

Race 2

Race 5 (For the full Cross Country Course see pages 52-53)

Race Starts

Race 1 - 1:30pm

The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle Race (Registered as The Baring Bingham) (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (2m 5f)

Race 2 - 2:10pm

The Brown Advisory Novices’ Steeple Chase (Registered as The Broadway Novices’ Chase) (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (3m ½f)

Race 3 - 2:50pm

The Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle Race (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (2m 5f)

Race 4 - 3:30pm

The Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (2m)

Race 5 - 4:10pm

The Glenfarclas Steeple Chase (A Cross Country Steeple Chase) (GBB Race) (3m 6f)

Races 1 & 3

Course Map Old Course

Race 6 - 4:50pm

The Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Steeple Chase (Premier Handicap) (GBB Race) (2m)

Race 7 - 5:30pm

The Weatherbys Champion Bumper (A Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race) (Grade 1) (GBB Race) (2m ½f)

Cheltenham Racecourse has 75 acres (30 hectares) of racing surface with five different tracks – a Chase and Hurdle course on the Old and New Courses and the Glenfarclas Cross Country Course. A team of 10 Groundstaff look after the track day to day and on raceday the team increases to 50, and 100 at The Festival.