Historic Gold Cup attracts peak viewership of 1.6 million on ITV

One in five people watching television on Friday afternoon were engaged with the Cheltenham Festival, with a peak audience of 1.6 million viewers witnessing Rachael Blackmore guide A Plus Tard to victory in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.

While overall average viewership fell from the 1.1 million of 2021, when much of the country was in lockdown, the average viewing figure of 967,000 was an increase on the 922,000 from 2020, according to figures provided by ITV Racing.

The festival reached an average of 17 per cent of the viewing audience throughout the week, with 1.6m tuning in to watch Tiger Roll's final performance in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase on Wednesday and Blackmore's historic success aboard A Plus Tard, when racing commanded a 19.4 per cent audience share.

Watch it again: Rachael Blackmore's famous Gold Cup win

Racing's audience share figures for the week were the "highest for over ten years", according to ITV Racing, after nearly 20 hours of the sport was broadcast on the main channel and on The Opening Show between Tuesday and Friday.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup was also shown in the United States for the first time this year, with Fox Sports broadcasting Racing TV's coverage of the event for an hour around the principal race to approximately "55 million homes".

Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore celebrate A Plus Tard's victoryCredit: Edward Whitaker

Tony Allevato, chief revenue officer of NYRA Bets, which oversees all US and international horseracing production for Fox Sports, said: "We've had a lot of good feedback and it was a resounding success. It's a proper major league sporting event."

Ian Renton, the Jockey Club's regional director for Cheltenham and the south-west, added: "We were thrilled for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup to be broadcast on mainstream TV in the US for the first time. Hopefully the appetite will be whetted for more jump racing coverage in the US."

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