National Hunt Chase is given radical overhaul as Jockey Club reveals major Cheltenham Festival changes

The 2025 Cheltenham Festival will feature three additional handicaps, unveiled by the Jockey Club on Thursday within a raft of major changes intended to deliver more competitive action at an event whose customers have been promised increased value for money and a better racecourse experience.

As first revealed in the Racing Post last week, the Grade 1 Turners Novices' Chase has been scrapped and replaced with a Grade 2 limited novice handicap chase. The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase also becomes a limited handicap. In arguably the most radical development, the festival's oldest contest, the National Hunt Chase, will be staged as a novice handicap and no longer confined to amateur jockeys.

Although the Close Brothers Mares' Hurdle and Paddy Power-backed Mares' Chase have been left alone, the Grade 2 Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle will in future be held without penalties, while prior race experience requirements in non-novice handicaps increase to four chase runs and five hurdle runs.

In another notable change, any winner of a Pertemps series qualifier will be guaranteed a start in the final, providing they are within the handicap at declaration stage.

Corbetts Cross (Derek O'Connor) on the way to winning the 2024 National Hunt ChaseCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Cheltenham Festival changes:

• What you need to know - these are the changes made to the Cheltenham Festival race programme 
• 'Value is more important than ever' - initiatives announced to improve Cheltenham Festival customer experience 

Following a 2024 festival whose attendance slump denied the Jockey Club a seven-figure sum in predicted income and triggered a £750,000 cut in the group's 2024 prize-money contribution, ticket prices have been frozen alongside the introduction of special offers. In addition, a park and ride service will operate in March, when it is hoped a repeat of this year's embarrassing car park scenes will be avoided by the laying of three times as much hard-standing trackway.

The much-anticipated Cheltenham announcement comes after the Jockey Club responded to last season's difficult festival by conducting an extensive review, during which prominent owners and trainers were consulted, alongside racegoers and members of the media.

Racegoers are being promised increased value and a better experience at the 2025 Cheltenham FestivalCredit: Michael Steele (Getty Images)

Cheltenham managing director Ian Renton said: "The Cheltenham Festival is the very pinnacle of our sport and the best-attended and most prestigious jump meeting anywhere in the world. As with any major event, it is important to evolve and improve to ensure everyone who joins us throughout the week has the best possible experience.

"As part of the process of reviewing this year's festival we analysed data and extensive feedback, including surveys, one-to-one meetings and focus group sessions to seek views ranging from those who come every year all the way through to people who have never visited the festival to find out why.

"Throughout the course of this review process there have been three distinct strands which have been impossible to ignore – value for money, the need to provide the best experience possible and the competitiveness of the race programme."

The 2m4f Golden Miller Novices' Chase, run most recently as the Turners and won last season by Grey Dawning, has been axedCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

During the summer deliberations, particular emphasis was placed on the festival's four novice chases, in recognition of unsatisfactory field sizes in recent years. As a result, the 2m4f Golden Miller Novices' Chase, run most recently as the Turners, has been axed, in the belief that potential runners will instead tackle the 2m Arkle or 3m Broadway, a contest sponsored by Brown Advisory.

In place of the Golden Miller, the Jockey Club has revived the 2m4f novice handicap chase, last run in 2020 but now reintroduced as a Grade 2 limited handicap. The marathon National Hunt Chase – which has had an average field size of 7.7 across the last three years – will now be open to professional riders and scheduled as a 0-145 event, having most recently been a Grade 2 prize.

Cheltenham clerk of the course Jon Pullin said: "It is hoped that by creating two novice handicap chases, we will have two competitive races with large fields and encourage the top novice chasers of the season to go down the Graded route in the My Pension Expert Arkle and Brown Advisory."

Ruby Walsh, the festival's all-time leading rider, is supportive of the new-look novice chase offering, arguing there were too many Pattern novice chases for the available horse population. He now believes there will be "more quality and more clashes" in the Arkle and Broadway.

Ruby Walsh: "All the changes are geared towards making the races more competitive"Credit: Edward Whitaker

Assessing the wider overhaul, Walsh said: "All the changes are geared towards making the races more competitive. The aim is to attract as many of the best horses as possible to run at the Cheltenham Festival and for them to run in the right races.

"Cheltenham is the pinnacle of jump racing and these changes help to maintain that. Of course, there will be some people who think these changes go too far and some who think they don’t go far enough. The important thing to remember is those making these changes have done so in the best interests of jump racing and the festival."

Similarly positive, 14-time British champion jumps trainer Paul Nicholls said: "On the whole these changes sound very sensible. Everybody has different opinions and you cannot please everybody at the same time, but I think we have to try to make the racing as competitive as possible as that is what the Cheltenham Festival is all about."

It remains possible that revisions will be made to the running order prior to the 2025 festival, where total prize-money will increase by £115,000 to £4.93 million. Financially, however, the Jockey Club does not expect to enjoy a huge boost from attendance income, with the organisation deeming an increase in crowd numbers to be unlikely next year. The organisation is also not ruling out a further attendance fall, having seen the four-day total tumble by around 50,000 over the last two years.

Renton said: "The changes we are implementing are aimed at improving the experience and value for all our racegoers and over time we hope they will result in increased attendances.

"However, there is no doubt the leisure industry is in a very different position in 2024 than it was even just two years ago, when people were looking to get to as many events as possible post-pandemic and before the impact of the cost of living crisis was being fully felt. With that in mind, it's important to be realistic about how soon we might see these changes impact our attendances."

Read these next:

Turners Novices' Chase to become novice handicap in revamped Cheltenham Festival programme 

What you need to know - these are the changes made to the Cheltenham Festival race programme 

'Value is more important than ever' - initiatives announced to improve Cheltenham Festival customer experience 

Cheltenham Festival changes should help jump racing - but they need to be part of a wider overhaul 

Subscribe to Racing Post Members' Club Ultimate Monthly and get 50% off your first three months!

Available to new subscribers purchasing Members' Club Ultimate Monthly using code MEMBERS24. First three payments will be charged at £24.98, subscription renews at full monthly price thereafter. To cancel please contact us at least seven days before subscription is due to renew.