'We're not being complacent' insists Jockey Club chief after total Cheltenham Festival attendance drops by 11,000

The chief executive of the Jockey Club insisted he was aware of the challenges facing the Cheltenham Festival following a drop in attendance and concerns around the racecourse experience but said there would be no knee-jerk reaction to events.

Fewer people attended the first three days of the festival than last year, with a notable low of 46,771 on Wednesday, down from 50,387 in 2023 and 64,431 in 2022. A sellout Gold Cup day crowd of 69,129 contributed to a total attendance figure for the festival of 229,999, down from 240,603 last season.

"You have to put the attendance figures in context," said Nevin Truesdale. "We've got nearly quarter of a million people attending the festival but alongside that there's been a wider decline in consumer spending with people struggling to pay their bills in this country.

"We've sold more hospitality than ever and club ticket sales are broadly the same as last year. The issue is with lower-priced tickets and we've tried to help by offering staged payment plans. We give ourselves a hard time but a ticket bought in advance compares favourably to similar events."

In addition to the cost of entry, the overall expense of attending the festival has been criticised, with racegoers often paying over the odds for accommodation. 

"Another trend is people cutting back on the number of days they attend," said Truesdale. "The further away they live, the more likely they are to do that, which tells you it's not just about the ticket. It's things like the cost of hotels. That's one of the big challenges for us."

Truesdale said the Jockey Club was already working with the council and hotels on how the overall cost of attending the festival could be made more affordable for racegoers but said the solution would be more complicated than simply cutting ticket prices.

"The cost of putting on this festival is approximately 50 per cent higher than in 2019, which is squeezing us from the cost end and removes some of the flexibility around ticket pricing. If we start cutting ticket prices, we may or may not get more people through the door, and the bigger picture is our ability to invest back into the sport, including through prize-money, will always swing on the success of this meeting.

"We're not being complacent. We absolutely acknowledge these trends but any changes have to be considered and done properly. We'll review the data and work out what we need to do next year."

Nevin Truesdale: "This is our sport's week. We should be uniting around it"

The weather has played its part this week and footage circulated on social media on Tuesday of racegoers struggling to leave the car park and getting stuck in the mud due to the wet conditions, leading some to suggest the track should have done more to prepare. 

"We're in the countryside and have more cars parking here than any other sports event," said Truesdale. "We had 100mm of rain in February – the seasonal norm is 30mm. We've laid 40,000 square metres of plastic covering and had nine tractors out to help pull people out if required.

"I think we've taken significant steps to try to mitigate this but you can never beat the weather. I'm not saying we won't look at it and try to do more going forward but it's not fair to say we haven't responded to the wet conditions or failed to prepare for it."

The Glenfarclas Chase was cancelled on Wednesday due to waterlogging on the cross-country course and was lost to the festival rather than being rearranged later in the week. "It's slightly out of our control but we were in conversation with the BHA," said Truesdale. "We should look at whether we could be more flexible at major festivals."

The race programme has also been placed under the spotlight this week. Some have called for changes to the make-up of the festival races to improve the competitiveness of the racing after a number of odds-on favourites won. 

"There's been some really good commentary on this over the last few weeks," said Truesdale. "We review the programme every year and we're absolutely listening. We'll be speaking to the BHA about what we do with certain parts of the programme. There are clearly ramifications if you start making changes, so it's not as simple as changing one race but it's incumbent on us to go away and consider some of the options."

Asked to reflect on the week as a whole, Truesdale added: "This is our sport's week. We should be uniting around it. We acknowledge that there have been challenges and there's things we need to do to improve but let's really celebrate what has been a fantastic few days of sport."

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