When was cheltenham festival first held

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Helena St. Make a Payment. The establishment of the Festival was one thing, but it still needed something to happen in order to see it shift from being a run-of-the-mill racing meeting to something more ephemeral.

That indistinguishable factor that helped to propel the Festival into the public consciousness came about in the s when Golden Miller won not one, not two but five Gold Cups between and He was seen as a truly special horse when he managed to win both the Gold Cup and Grand National in , being the only horse to do so at the time of writing.

Thankfully another horse was to come to the fore in the post-war years to allow the Festival to stay in the spotlight, being just as important to the history of Cheltenham even if for entirely different reasons. Cottage Rake inspired the now famous Irish invasion to Gloucestershire, becoming the first Irish-trained horse to win the Gold Cup in The first thing that happened was that Johnny Henderson and some friends created the Racecourse Holdings Trust and bought Cheltenham Racecourse with the specific idea of ploughing money into it to ensure that the venue was safe and protected for the future.

This in turn resulted in interest from the BBC who began to broadcast live racing from the course and were blessed when a new hero came to the fore at just the right time. Arkle remains one of the best horses ever to grace the Cheltenham turf, being held in such high regard that you can see his trophy at the the racecourse.

He raced 34 times under rules and won 27 of those races, not only thrusting himself into the limelight but also the Cheltenham Festival alongside him.

Every decade has had its own special horse at Cheltenham, yet none of them have ever managed to live up to the billing of Arkle. In terms of the Gold Cup the other main one worth talking about is Best Mate pictured , who followed in the footsteps of Arkle and won three successive Gold Cups between and Yet away from the main event, other races have had their own heroes.

The Champion Hurdle, for example, has boasted a number of top-class horses as winners over the years, not least of which was Istabraq, who won it three times between and He dominated most of his races, although the distance was limited to 2miles. He never competed in races longer than this, which is perhaps where his strength was, and that is where he proved his worth in horse racing. Moscow Flyer made his debut as a novice runner in October but failed to clinch the title in that bumper.

However, this mishap did not stop him from proving his worth as a hurdler. He trained under Jessica Harrington and won 2 grade 1 contests at Punchestown and Fairyhouse during his novice campaign in Moscow Flyer met his challenge in the next season when he raced with Istabraq and almost won the race. Moscow Flyer proved to be a champion because, even though he had some challenges with jumping, and this problem persisted throughout his racing career, he always dominated his racing campaign in style and with spectacular races.

For instance, he won 3 grade 1 races and was only defeated by Seebald in the Cheltenham Arkle Chase contest. Moscow Flyer had a positive attitude towards racing and was ranked among the best racing hurdlers in Ireland and the UK. Fitzgerald is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey. He is currently involved in television presenting. His stunning career lasted for over fifteen years. Fitzgerald started his first adventures at the age of 16 when he began riding out for Lister Richard, a trained in County Wexford.

He admitted once that the period between and was so tough that he wanted to give up and move to Australia. He was leading jockey at Cheltenham in and He was forced into retirement on 7 August due to a bad injury.

Barry Geraghty is a leading Irish jockey. Geraghty won his first race in and he became the Irish Champion jump jockey for the first time. His first victory at Cheltenham took place in and his first victory in England was at Uttoxeter at the Midlands Grand National.

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