1912 A railway station opened above the northern end of the course. It was part of the Great Western Railways’ Cheltenham to Stratford line. The station was only open on racedays and the service continued up to March, 1976. See 2003 for details about the re-opening of the station. 1914-19 Jump racing was affected far more than Flat racing during the First World War (1914-1918), with very few meetings in Britain. In 1915 the two-day March fixture took place at Cheltenham, and another in April, but then there was no more racing at the track until May, 1919. During the war, the spanking new grandstands and other buildings were turned over to the Red Cross for use as a troop hospital, with the first patients in the long-defunct ladies’ drawing room. The evidence of their occupation still remains at the course, in the form of brickwork, with small indentations created as soldiers chalked up their billiard cues, preserved in the Tommy Atkins bar in the main grandstand. A plaque reads: “This building was used as a hospital for sick and wounded soldiers during the Great War. It was manned by Gloucestershire voluntary aid detachments Nos 14 and 18 and was open from October 28, 1914 to February 28, 1919, during which 3,169 cases were treated.” 1920 The Festival’s first Irish success was Be Careful, winner of the Foxhunter Chase under Mr P Roberts. The 11-yearold finished a gallant fifth in the Irish Grand National next time out, carrying 16lb overweight. 1923 The Festival took place over three days for the first time. By then Cheltenham had an identity as a centre of Jumping and the March meeting drew large enthusiastic crowds, and the efforts of Cathcart and his team were pivotal as Jump racing regrouped after the war. The three-day meeting included six selling races but – the National Hunt and Grand Annual Chases apart - race titles that were to become more familiar had started to appear: Foxhunter, County Hurdle and Gloucestershire Hurdle. 1924 The first running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, with nine runners, was won by Red Splash, a five-year-old owned by Major Everard Wyndham, trained by Fred Withington and ridden by Dick Rees. The Grand National still dominated the Jumping calendar as a spectacle, a betting medium and a target. But as a handicap, the winner was not necessarily the season’s best horse and Cathcart and his colleagues decided to instigate a prize over three and a quarter miles to attract the best staying chasers at level weights. The first Gold Cup, run over three and a quarter miles on Wednesday, March 12, was worth £685 to the winner, ranking below both the National Hunt Chase (£1,285) and National Hunt Handicap Chase (£833). That same year, skull caps were made compulsory in Jump racing. 1926 The first top-class performer to win at The Festival was Grakle, who took the 1926 juvenile chase and later won the 1931 Grand National, was placed in three Gold Cups and at the age of 12 started 10/11 favourite for Golden Miller’s first in 1932. 1927 The first running of the Champion Hurdle, won by Blaris and worth £365. Hitherto the best hurdlers had to prove themselves in the Imperial Cup at Sandown, again a handicap. 1929-1936 Easter Hero (the first dual winner, 1929-30) and Golden Miller (the only five-time winner, 1932-36), owned by Dorothy Paget, dominated the Cheltenham Gold Cup roll of honour. The race took time to become established but those two horses were public icons, and did a considerable amount to consolidate Cheltenham’s position. 1931 The Festival did not take place because of frost, with just the National Hunt Chase run in April. 1937 The second day of The Festival was abandoned because of snow and the third day was lost due to flooding. 1938 Danny Morgan partnered the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Morse Code and in 1959 the Irishman sent out the winner of the same race, Roddy Owen. He thus became the first of five winning jockeys in the Cheltenham Gold Cup to subsequently also train a Gold Cup victor. 1939 Four mares have been successful in the Champion Hurdle, the first of them African Sister followed by Dawn Run (1984), Flakey Dove (1994) and Annie Power (2016) 1942-44 There was no Jump racing in Britain for the 1942-43 and 1943-44 seasons and the Cheltenham buildings were used to house and train British and American troops waiting for action. But the status of The Festival was such that it was one of the meetings allowed during the other war years, even though part of the course was under plough. Not every Jump venue survived the war; 79 were licenced in 1939 and by 1946 only 39 remained. The last meetings before the shutdown were on 21 March 1942, at Wetherby and The Festival on one day with eight races. When Jump racing resumed towards the end of the war, it was Cheltenham that kicked things off, on January 6, 1945, after meetings scheduled for Wetherby and Windsor on Boxing Day, 1944 were frozen off. There was no Festival meeting that year but the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle took place at a one-day fixture. 1946 The Gold Cup became the richest race at The Festival for the first time; Prince Regent won £1,130 against Prattler’s £1,036 for the National Hunt Chase. 1947 The three days of The Festival could not take place in March because of frost and snow, but the key races were run instead at the April meeting which had an extra day added. The Festival was given its own section in the racing’s respected annual, the Bloodstock Breeders’ Review, for the first time; hitherto the Grand National had been the only Jump race thought worthy of a report, although some of those had contained Cheltenham references. Cheltenham’s was a short entry and the summary of the Gold Cup came after those for the National Hunt Chase and Foxhunter Chase at the meeting. 1949 The first two days of The Festival were run in March but the third day proved impossible to stage as the course was frozen. The Gold Cup was transferred to the April meeting. 14
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