The Cheltenham National Hunt festival is an extremely well known and high class horse racing event, which takes place annually in Cheltenham in March. Today some of the finest British and Irish horses race against one another, and the event therefore attracts many affluent spectators. Many of the spectators are Irish due to the Irish horses racing and the fact that it often falls on or around St Patrick’s Day.

The official name of the festival is the ‘National Hunt Meeting’, and it started in 1860 at Market Harborough. At this time it was called the Grand National Hunt. Then in 1861 the event was held in Cheltenham for the first time. The following few years the National Hunt Meeting was held at various locations, before finally returning to Cheltenham again in 1904 for two years. After this time, the National Hunt Meeting was held in Warwick until 1910, and the following year it returned to Cheltenham where it has been held ever since.  Prestbury Park in Cheltenham is the grounds where the festival takes place every year.

In 1924, the Cheltenham Gold Cup began, which was the first championship race event. Three years later the Champion Hurdle was established, and then 32 years after this the Queen Mother Championship Chase was introduced. In 1972 the first Stayers Hurdle took place.

For many years the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival was a three day event, but this changed in 2005 when an additional day was added to the festival so that there could be a championship race on each day. The highlight of the entire festival is the Gold Cup, which is held on the Friday every year. Five new races were also introduced with the additional day so that there are 6 races on each day of the festival. Since this time a further 2 races have been included. The races now include Neptune Investment Management Novice Hurdle, Champion Bumper and the Arkle Challenge Trophy.

The Cheltenham National Hunt Meeting is extremely prestigious, and in terms of race prize money the event is only second to the Grand National, one of the most famous racing events. The event has rarely been canceled, but in 2001 due to the foot and mouth disease epidemic in the UK the event was first postponed and later canceled. In 2008 extreme stormy weather led to the cancellation of the 2nd day, however these races were run later that week.

During 2006, 11 horses died and this raised concern over the number of horses that were suffering injuries or dying as prior to 2006 there had been many other incidents. This led to the racecourse reducing the number of horses racing in particular events, however the festival has still gained bad press over this issue and many animal rights activists have spoken out stating that they do not believe that enough is being done over the safety of the animals.

The first Ladies Charity Flat Race was introduced last year in 2010 to raise money for Cancer Research, and all of the jockeys were women.