Attendance record broken for Cheltenham's October meeting as racegoers experience changes - including easing of alcohol rule

Cheltenham recorded its biggest crowd for the October meeting with 20,585 in attendance which racecourse boss Ian Renton claimed justified a raft of changes aimed at improving customer experience introduced during summer.

While the headline amendments were regarding the Cheltenham Festival race schedule, other updates included new value-for-money deals and the dropping of restrictions over carrying alcohol in some course-viewing spots. The latter was deemed a particular success with turnover in the betting ring reportedly up.

It was the fourth consecutive year the track attendance record for this meeting was broken, with the latest an increase of more than 300 racegoers. The course said a quarter of the crowd was made up of students, brought in by the student racing initiative Invades.

In addition, the crowd was the biggest for the meeting since it moved to Friday and Saturday in 2007, when 12,514 attended on the second day.

Renton said: "We had a good day with a nice turnout on Friday and we had 5,000 students over in the Best Mate which was lovely to see again.

"Occasionally you get a slight setback in numbers like we did at the festival but you recalibrate and think about what does need to be done slightly differently. I think it has activated everybody and we have responded and it's been a great two days to start the season.

"One change which made a slight difference was reducing the group booking discounts starting from six people rather then ten. That's taken quite a bit of take up but walk-ups have been good and bookings have been strong for a fair few weeks.

"It's a long way until the festival [in March] but it's nice to see we got the balance right of the students and our traditional racegoers. Our sales for the November meeting and Christmas meeting are looking good, the Cheltenham Festival too, with good numbers in hospitality and tickets. Attendance-wise we're in pretty good shape."

Jockeys walk into the parade ring for the opening race of the season at Cheltenham on FridayCredit: Edward Whitaker

One disappointment for the course was the turnout for the open novice hurdles and chases, with just one British-trained horse in each of the 2m novice chase on Friday and the 3m novice hurdle and 3m½f novice chase on Saturday. None of the three races had more than six runners. 

Cheltenham's biggest programme change announced this summer was the removal of Grade 1 status for the 2m4f Turners Novices' Chase, which was made an open handicap.

Renton said: "The changes have been received positively. We know, as we saw in the novice chases and hurdles, that Irish participation is essential to make for some good racing and it's nice if, increasingly, Willie Mullins is aiming higher once again."

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