Cheltenham’s November meeting heralds real start of National Hunt season
READY TO ROCK: Jonbon will be the star attraction at Cheltenham's November meeting. Picture: Healy Racing
There are nine days of racing at Cheltenham each season before the track’s Festival meeting in March. This time next week, with the showpiece event still four months away, five will be in the form book. It is, on the face of it, rather a waste of a magnificent racecourse (or two racecourses, since the New course takes over from the Old after the final afternoon of the November meeting on Sunday).
But the paucity of racing at the home of jumping is, to some extent, the point. Cheltenham racing is National Hunt’s most precious resource and an increase in the supply would debase the currency. It would also diminish the anticipation for the three-day meeting that has attracted nearly 400 entries.
This meeting is in rude health on both sides of the running rail. The abrupt decline in attendance at the Festival has been well-documented, but Cheltenham’s second-best meeting has reversed the trend since a one-off post-covid boom in the 2021-22 season. Like the Festival attendance, the total crowd for the November meeting dropped the following season. Unlike the Festival, however, where the decline has continued, the November crowd has edged back up in the past two years.
It can only be a positive sign for the track’s management team as they set out to address their Festival problem. Cheltenham in general retains its appeal to the fans, even if some of them have — hopefully temporarily — fallen out of love with the Festival-going experience. If the Festival-specific issues can be identified and addressed the track’s showpiece event should regain its appeal.
For owners and trainers, the pre-Festival meetings are an invaluable chance to give their best prospects vital experience on the uniquely demanding track where 28 horses will become Festival winners next spring.
Three of last season’s Festival winners — Wodhooh, Jagwar, and Stumptown — were last-time-out winners at Cheltenham. Five more ran on the penultimate start before the Festival, including Haiti Couleurs and Jango Baie, both of whom won at the December meeting. There could be a Festival winner lurking in the field for any of the 19 races.
While there are no Grade One events at this — or any other — pre-Festival meeting, there will be past, and probably future, Grade One winners in action, starting with the ever-popular Jonbon in Friday’s Shloer Chase.
James Owen, whose growing strength on the Flat and over jumps is one of the stories of 2025, has won the opening juvenile hurdle on Saturday’s card the past two seasons. It will be fascinating to see which of his three entries gets the nod to attempt to follow Burdett Road — last year’s Champion Hurdle runner-up — and East India Dock, who went on to be beaten less than a length in the Triumph Hurdle having set off as the 5-4 favourite.
