Record ticket sales for Gold Cup Day at Cheltenham Festival

General admission tickets for the Gold Cup day at Cheltenham Festival sold out before the end of January, setting a brand new record. In fact, total demand for general admission to this year’s Cheltenham Festival has increased by 37%. compared with 2019. The 2021 festival happened “behind closed doors” due to pandemic measures, meaning the general public haven’t attended the world-class horse racing event since 2020. Fresh demand for this year’s event from racing fanatics is therefore naturally through the roof. 

Only hospitality packages remain

Currently, hospitality packages for Gold Cup day (the festival’s last day on 18^th March) are still up for grabs. But, they don’t come cheap, priced at £625 per person. Tickets for the festival’s first three days (beginning on Tuesday 15^th March) are still on sale, but continuing to go quickly. Spectators lucky enough to secure tickets can watch the events while enjoying fine food from award-winning restaurants. Moreover, many spectators and festival goers also often enjoy betting on the races. Bookmakers across the country are offering attractive sign-up offers, customer promotions and bonuses in order to entice new potential members. This year’s offers for the Cheltenham Festival even include a refund on losing horses (in the first race of the day), which virtually constitutes a risk-free bet.

Record demand across the board 

This year’s upcoming Grand National (held in April at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool annually) is also experiencing record high demand – ticket sales are up 19% compared to the same period in 2019 (which was the last Grand National attended by the general public, again due to pandemic measures). Currently, only hospitality packages and tickets for the Embankment are still yet to sell out. Moreover, the Jockey Club (the organisers of Cheltenham Festival) have also reported widespread growth in ticket sales across all 14 courses compared with 2019. General admission ticket sales, in particular, have seen a 7% increase from 1^st August to December 2021. 

Great public response

“The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Randox Grand National are two of the biggest sporting events in the calendar, so we’re delighted that they will once again take place in front of proper crowds,” says Nevin Truesdale, Jockey Club chief executive. “We know that the past two years have been a time of real uncertainty for everyone, so it’s fantastic to see people’s eagerness to get back to our racecourses and their confidence to book tickets for our events months in advance returning.” 

“We still have tickets available for the first three days of the Cheltenham Festival and for all three days of the Randox Grand National festival, but I can’t stress enough how popular they are proving,” Truesdale further commented. “As an organisation which reinvests all its profits back into the sport under our royal charter commitment, this news is not only a huge boost to the Jockey Club, it’s massive for horse-racing as an industry”.

The editorial unit