THE FESTIVAL 2017 MEDIA GUIDE

Cheltenham Media Guide 2017
mile course near Andoversford to the
south east of Cheltenham; Fugleman,
ridden by his owner Mr d’Oyley, beat
eight rivals. The Grand Annual Chase
is now the final contest at The Festival,
which is staged each March. The
Cheltenham area was home to some of
steeplechasing’s most famous names,
men - like Tom Olliver and his protégé
George Stevens - whose exploits
helped lay the new sport’s foundations
locally and nationally. Olliver won
three Grand Nationals as a rider,
Stevens – who never fell in 15 rides at
Aintree but was killed in a freak riding
accident near his home on Cleeve Hill
- five, a record which still holds today.
Another of Olliver’s pupils was the
amateur rider and racing poet Adam
Lindsay Gordon, who was at school
in the town with another three-time
Grand National-winning rider, Tommy
Pickernell. William Holman, who
trained on Cleeve Hill, was the first to
saddle three winners of the Aintree
showpiece. William Archer, landlord
of the King’s Arms in Prestbury, also
trained a National winner. Olliver was
best man at his wedding; one of his
sons was, of course, the tragic 13-time
Flat champion jockey Fred Archer.
In its early years the Grand Annual
Chase did not have a permanent
home, being run at various venues in
the Cheltenham area, including several
close to the Prestbury Park estate.
The contest had some distinguished
winners, human and equine; in
1837 Captain Martin Becher, later
immortalised at Aintree, won on Vivian;
the first Grand National winner Lottery
won in 1839 and 1840; in 1845 Holman
on Zeno dead-heated with Olliver on
Greyling; in 1847 Holman won again on
Stanmore, beating Archer on Daddy
Long Legs a head. Steeplechasing in
those days was pretty much a freefor-all
across country over natural
obstacles at hunting, rather than
racing, pace, with the route marked
by flags. For instance, that 1847 Grand
Annual Chase, mapped out by Colonel
Berkeley on the lower slopes of
Cleeve Hill from Knoll Hill House near
Prestbury village to the Hewletts, to
the east of Cheltenham, had directions
that included “through a lane to
Noverton House, to the right over a
stone wall into Mr Turner’s orchard,
over a brook with gorse plants on
the taking-off side, and through Mr
Gyngell’s meadows”. The race was
the inspiration for Lindsay Gordon’s
evocative poem “How We Beat The
Favourite”.
1860
The National Hunt Chase was founded.
A level-weights race for amateur riders
on novice horses, it was the brainchild
of another of the Cheltenham racing
set, Dr Fothergill ‘Fogo’ Rowlands, a
trainer and fine amateur rider and it
proved more important in chasing’s,
and ultimately Cheltenham’s, early
years than the Grand Annual. By the
middle of the century, into the reign
of Queen Victoria, Jump racing – even
the Grand National - had begun to
decline in popularity. In public eyes it
was seen as much more ill-organised
and corrupt than Flat racing and
many of those who might have
competed still preferred hunting and
the lure of dashing deeds in cavalry
regiments in the Crimea and India. The
creation of the National Hunt Chase
and soon afterwards the National
Hunt Committee, Jump racing’s first
regulatory body, were key in turning
the sport’s fortunes and reputation
around. The National Hunt Chase -
originally funded by local hunts – was
another race with a nomadic early
existence but it soon stood second
only to the Grand National in value and
prestige and whichever venue staged
it became, Aintree apart, the top
fixture of the season.
1881
Prestbury Park was acquired by
William Alexander Baring Bingham.
During the late 1870s and, into the
1880s, Jump racing in the vicinity of
Cheltenham was again a regular in the
form books, with two-day meetings
under the heading Cheltenham Hunt
or Cheltenham Grand Annual. But
none had taken place at Prestbury
Park; Lord Ellenborough, an active
politician, had sold most of his estate
in 1853 and the new owner refused
to have racing on his land. Baring
Bingham vowed to restore the sport
to Prestbury Park and, in time, began
to bring some order to proceedings
and some stability to the concept
of Cheltenham races. He built a
grandstand and railed off the course,
providing a left-handed running
direction over undulating terrain which
proved a template for the modern-day
Cheltenham Racecourse.
1898
First of all there was a low-key
one-day card at Prestbury Park that
included an eight-runner Grand Annual
Chase (won by Xebee) and a three
and a quarter-mile farmers’ race with
separate results for Heavyweights and
Lightweights.
1902
Racing began in earnest at Prestbury
Park, with two-day meetings in April
and November. The April meeting,
which opened with the Prestbury
Park Maiden Hurdle won by Prince
Talleyrand and included the Grand
Annual Chase won by Nahillah,
attracted 80 runners. The course was
then run by a private company chaired
by the master of the Cotswold Hunt,
Herbert Lord.
1904
The capture for the first time of the
National Hunt Chase (won by Timothy
Titus) acknowledged Prestbury Park’s
growing significance in the Jumping
calendar. The venue was the four-mile
race’s 27th different home; it stayed at
Cheltenham in 1905 before going back
to Warwick for five years.
1908
The Cheltenham Steeplechase
Company was formed, putting the
course on a professional commercial
footing for the first time. The operation
was taken over by racecourse
management company Pratt & Co,
who would have it on their books for
the next 70 years. One of its directors,
Frederick Cathcart, became the
first chairman of the newly-formed
company and under his guidance,
racing at Cheltenham blossomed
and prospered. A major building
programme was instigated; a new
members’ stand was opened and
celebrated at a meeting in May, with
further expansion of facilities during
each of the next six years.
1911
The National Hunt Chase returned to
Cheltenham for good as the highlight
of a two-day fixture on March 8 and
9 that is regarded as the inaugural
Festival. The meeting was described
in the formbook as “National Hunt
and Cheltenham” and the first winner
at it was Young Buck, ridden by
Jack Anthony to take the Southam
Chase. An additional course, with a
section behind the grandstand that
included the start, had been laid out
for the big race, in which 33/1 shot
Sir Halbert beat 37 rivals. The 12 races
also included two selling chases and a
selling hurdle, a NH Flat race, a hunter
chase and a four-year-old chase. In July
that year there was a prestigious polo
tournament, attended by the Cheltenham
great and good, on the infield.
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