Cheltenham woos back racegoers with cheaper Guinness and return of Ladies Day

The Cheltenham festival attendance, which hit a high in 2022, has been in sharp decline over the last three years. 

The price of a pint of Guinness will be cut from £7.80 to £7.50. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Cheaper beer at all meetings, the return of an official Ladies Day at the festival meeting in March and a slight reduction to the capacity on all four days of its showpiece event are among the “enhancements to the customer experience” announced by Cheltenham on Tuesday ahead of the new jumping season at the track, which opens on 24 October.

Attendance at the Cheltenham festival, which will run from 10 to 13 March next year, has been in sharp decline since a post-Covid high of 280,627 in 2022, and the crowd of 41,949 spectators for the second day of this year’s meeting was the lowest for any day at the event since 1993.