Champion Chase day deluge may have been key factor in sticking to four days

The deluge that fell on the Wednesday of this year’s Cheltenham Festival may have played a key role in the decision by the Jockey Club not to extend the fixture to a fifth day.

Cheltenham announced on Monday the festival would remain at four days for the foreseeable future following a six-month consultation, despite the widespread expectation a Saturday would be added to the meeting from 2024 onwards.

During the consultation, views were sought from a range of people on whether the biggest jumps meeting of the year should be extended, with supporters of a fifth day, which included some within the Jockey Club, highlighting the likelihood of extra income and a wider audience engaging with the sport on a Saturday.

However, when the decision to remain at four days was announced, among the reasons put forward by Cheltenham’s managing director Ian Renton was the impact an extra day would have on the ground – despite only two more races being needed to fill a fifth day – with Nicky Henderson also citing the ground conditions as a major consideration.

More than 20mm of rain unexpectedly fell on day two of this year’s festival, turning the going heavy from soft, with clerk of the course Jon Pullin having added 5mm of water to the course after the first day of racing due to quickening conditions and a mixed forecast.

Jon Pullin: clerk of the course was involved in consultations over fifth dayCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Pullin pointed to the experience as a factor that had been considered during the consultation, and said on Tuesday: “I was involved in the consultation with many others and members of the Cheltenham team who would have more knowledge of the course than I might have done.

"There was lots of data used, historical data also formed a part of that, and I certainly expressed views for and against the extra day. The weather we got around the Wednesday this year certainly pointed towards the sorts of challenges that we could have found coming our way with an extra day of the festival.”

Cheltenham is set to host its first meeting of the new season on Friday and Saturday, with Pullin and his team having faced a difficult summer with limited rainfall.

Conditions were described as good, good to firm in places on Tuesday and Pullin said: “The forecast is for some rain tomorrow of between 5-10mm throughout the day. It dries up for Thursday and then there is the chance of showers on Friday and Saturday with 2-4mm potentially on each day.

“The quicker areas are on the 2m4f chute and around the 2m start. We’re continuing to irrigate and hopefully with some rainfall too we’d be able to move to good ground. It’s been an enormous challenge and the groundstaff here have done a tremendous job to get us into this position.”

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The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday