Smallest Cheltenham Festival crowd recorded this century with 41,949 in attendance on Wednesday

The smallest Cheltenham Festival crowd this century was recorded on Wednesday, with 41,949 in attendance for BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase day.

The drop of just under 5,000 from last year, when 46,771 attended on the Wednesday, echoes the fall in Tuesday's crowd, which decreased from 60,181 to 55,498, the smallest for that day since 2012.

As recently as 2022 the crowd on the Wednesday of the festival was 64,431. 

Wednesday's attendance beats the record low since 2000 of 45,649, recorded on the second day of the festival in 2009. General admission for Gold Cup day has sold out with limited hospitality tickets available.

A total crowd of 97,447 across the two days is a slump of 35,551 from the first two days in 2022 and comes after the racecourse's new CEO Guy Lavender warned of an attendance drop in an open letter published in the Racing Post last week. He said the track would set aside time to "review, reset and rebuild" for the future.

Stumptown: won the Cross CountryCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Meanwhile, a number of changes made in the summer have been well received. The decision to change the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase to a handicap was praised by Tom Ellis after Latenightpass ran well under 10st 11lb to finish second, while the easing of restrictions on alcohol in Tattersalls has led to a major increase in activity in the betting ring.

Lavender, speaking on Wednesday, said : "Experiencing my first Cheltenham Festival roar in my new role is a moment that I will never forget and I thought the crowd of more than 55,000 people on Tuesday created a special atmosphere while also showing their respects to Michael O’Sullivan, whose tragic passing was marked before racing began. 

"We were also pleased with the early feedback received following the changes introduced for this year’s festival which has been very positive."

Cheltenham's groundstaff are to cover take-offs and landings with temperatures forecast to drop to 1C overnight. Racing switches to the New course on Thursday and Friday and the ground is good to soft, soft in places. 

"We'll put covers on take-offs and landings this evening," said clerk of the course Jon Pullin after racing. "We haven't got much of a frost this evening but it just gives us that comfort for the morning that we're okay. It's a dry day forecast on Thursday with temperatures at around 7C. 

"Wednesday was another great day's racing and the ground has held up really well. We've got two great days racing to come."

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