Ladies' day to return to 2026 Cheltenham Festival and prices cut as Jockey Club aims to boost attendances

Ladies' day will return to the Cheltenham Festival and ticket prices have been cut as the Jockey Club looks to reinvigorate jump racing's biggest four days after last week's attendance slump.

Cheltenham introduced Style Wednesday in 2018, but new chief executive Guy Lavender hopes the change back to ladies' day will maximise the festival's appeal following customer feedback.

The moves come after last Wednesday became the lowest-attended day at the Cheltenham Festival this century with 41,949 on track, a drop of more than 20,000 from the same day in 2022.

Meanwhile, early-bird ticket prices, revealed on Monday, have decreased with the cost of the cheapest ticket on Gold Cup day reduced by £3 to £50.

A six per cent reduction for a ticket for the Best Mate enclosure on Friday is the highest percentage decrease. Tickets for the Club enclosure on the same day cost £99, while Tattersalls is £67, a reduction of £3 from last year when prices were frozen.

Admission for each of the first three days is priced at £35 in the Best Mate enclosure, £52 in Tattersalls and £83 in the Club enclosure, although prices drop to £31.50, £46.80 and £74.70 per day when bought through a multi-day package. On-the-day prices start at £70 in the Best Mate, £91 in Tattersalls and £126 in Club.

Crowds at last week's meeting fell for a third consecutive year with a total attendance across the four days of 218,839, down more than 10,000 on last season and 22,000 on the previous year. Issues such as poor value for money, the high cost of accommodation and uncompetitive racing have been blamed for the slump.

Lavender said: “We’re excited to announce that the Wednesday of the festival is being renamed ladies' day from next year. For years ladies' day was how racegoers knew day two of the festival and for many they still refer to it as such. By making this change we hope to appeal to a wider range of racegoers, with raceday fashion very much celebrated and at the heart of the day. 

• 'The changes are good but they need to go further' - Cheltenham racegoers on the festival experience after 10,000 crowd drop   

“Having received customer feedback on this issue we're confident that this will be a popular change and we’re looking forward to bringing the concept to life over the coming months, working closely with partners such as Holland Cooper. 

"The annual style awards will be returning bigger and better than ever and we hope the relaunch of ladies' day will contribute towards reinvigorating the Wednesday of the festival next year and beyond."

Ladies' day at the Jockey Club-owned Aintree is usually its most strongly attended fixture of the season other than Grand National day, with a crowd of 42,300 recorded last year. 

It is also a focal point at Royal Ascot, with Thursday's crowd the second highest at the five-day meeting after Saturday.

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'The changes are good but they need to go further' - Cheltenham racegoers on the festival experience after 10,000 crowd drop 

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

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