Cheltenham Festival switch to Saturday a gamble not worth taking

The lack of a prime TV slot and staffing issue may scupper suggestion of switch for the season’s jumps highlight

FESTIVAL SWITCH: Cheltenham saw an increased attendance at its season-opening Showcase meeting over the weekend. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

For the fourth year running, Cheltenham saw an increased attendance at its season-opening Showcase meeting over the weekend, as 31,125 racegoers made their way to the home of jumps racing. The total was a record since what was previously a midweek meeting moved to a Friday/Saturday slot in 2007, while the 21,113 crowd on Saturday was also a record for the second day of the meeting.

It was a very positive start, in other words, to Guy Lavender’s first full season as the chief executive at Cheltenham, and the man tasked with turning around the sudden — and still largely unexplained — slump in attendance at the Festival meeting over the last three years.