Crowds and British fortunes on the up at Cheltenham Festival but Willie Mullins and Paul Townend ensure some things remain the same

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Cheltenham chief executive Guy Lavender's confident prediction that crowds would be up at this year's festival was borne out after another big turnout on Gold Cup day.

It reversed a four-year decline which had resulted in a fall of more than 60,000 since the post-Covid festival of 2022.

The attendance on the first day had been 57,242, up by 4.5 per cent on the 54,762 who were there last year. It rose from 41,949 to 46,317 (a 10.4 per cent increase) on the second day; and it was up from 53,362 to 55,648 (a 4.3 per cent rise) on the third.

The crowd on the final afternoon was 67,016, which was down slightly on the 68,020 in 2025 but took the total for the four days to 226,223. That was a 3.7 per cent increase on the overall attendance of 218,093 last year.

Crowds welcome back the Gold Cup heroesCredit: Andrew Parker (racingpost.com/photos)

This is the second festival since Lavender took charge and he had predicted beforehand that a number of changes to the customer experience would lead to an upturn after a period of decline.

There was also a major improvement in British fortunes at the meeting, which meant the Prestbury Cup went down to the last race of the week.

Ireland had come out on top for the previous six seasons, winning 20 of the 28 races in 2025, and were a best-priced 1-6 to prevail once again at the start of the final day. 

Victory for the home team in the closing Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle would have made it a tie this year but Air Of Entitlement won it for Ireland, who edged home 15-13 in the final reckoning.

Willie Mullins ended the meeting with eight winners and was top trainer at the festival for the eighth year in a row and the 13th time overall.

Paul Townend's four winners meant he was leading jockey at the meeting for the fifth straight season, and sixth in the last seven.  

Read more on day four at the Cheltenham Festival:

Gallant Gaelic Warrior oozes class as he canters to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory for Willie Mullins and 'speechless' Paul Townend 

'Only 50-1!' - Willie Mullins unearths another huge-priced winner of the Triumph as Apolon De Charnie powers home 

'She never missed a beat' - Dinoblue shows her class with 'career-best' in Mares' Chase repeat 

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