• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Betting Offers UK

Best Free Bets & Casino Sign Up Offers For 2022

  • Betting Offers
  • Free Bets
  • Casino Bonuses
  • Home
  • New Sites
  • Free Spins
  • Free Bet Clubs
  • Loyalty
  • Football
    • Premier League
  • Horse Racing
    • Cheltenham Festival
      • Disruptions & Cancellations
      • Old Course v New Course
      • Prestbury Cup
      • Top Trainers
      • Top Jockeys
      • Amateur Races
    • Grand National
      • Picking a Winner
      • Grand National Winners
      • Grand National Fences
      • Disruptions & Cancellations
      • Back to Back Winners
      • How Often Does the Favourite Win?
      • Prize Money
      • Virtual Grand National
      • Grand National Sponsors
      • Reserve Horses
      • How Many Finish
      • How Many Run
      • Grey Horses
      • Popularity
      • Amateur Jockeys
  • Irish Lottery
  • Blog

The Show Must Go On: Three Occasions When the Cheltenham Festival Almost Fell at the First Hurdle

3 March, 2018

Horse Rearing Up in the Snow
Image Credit: Thowra_uk via flickr

Shrewd punters have been working on their shortlists for the Cheltenham Festival in 2018 for quite some time, and now the festivities are approaching fast attention is turning to one of the chief factors that can make or break the famous meeting: the good old English weather.

As you may know, the ‘going’ – that’s how firm or soft the footing is, to the layman – impacts upon two things: which horses are entered into each race, and how well they go on to perform. As some like it hot and some like it cold, horses have a particular penchant for the turf to be exactly how they like it.

The Beast from the East and Storm Emma have joined forces to batter the UK with heavy snow, gale force winds and deluges of rain, and there were even fears at one point that the festival would have to be postponed to a later date with other meetings up and down the land abandoned.

Happily, those concerns have been assuaged recently by organisers, and so punters can expect Cheltenham Festival 2018 to go ahead….albeit in rather sticky conditions.

Clerk of the course, Simon Claisse, told the Racing Post that an estimated 200 tons of snow will need to be manually removed from the track. “I think the ground will be soft when the snow melts, but it’s hard to tell at the moment while it’s still thawing,” he said. “We think the snow will have amounted to about 12mm and the forecast is showing it could be 15mm of rain by next Sunday.”

The long-range weather forecast is not great, either, with heavy rain forecast in the days leading up to the festival and considerable precipitation falling on each of the four race days, too. As we know, British weather reporters are able to miss hurricanes on their maps, so take the above with a pinch of salt, but such consistent forecasts of rain do not bode well for the meeting.

So the watchword for Cheltenham 2018 is heavy; the heavy, muddy conditions favouring some horses much more than others, and that’s something for punters to consider.

It Never Rains But it Pours….

All of this talk of snow, rain and high winds has gotten us thinking about some of the other times that the unpredictable spring weather in England has rather dampened the spirits of festival-goers, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Here’s a couple of occasions in which the Cheltenham Festival has been severely affected by the weather:

A Wild Wind Blows

Wind Sock in High Wind
The 2008 edition of the festival was beset by strong winds of up to 50mph; so much so that day two of the festival had to be cancelled due to safety concerns.

All six of the races poised for Wednesday’s session had to be postponed and were subsequently rescheduled for Thursday and Friday; great news for the spectators with tickets for those days!

Both days featured a stacked card with the first races setting off at 12:30pm – a rather premature call to arms for the famous Cheltenham roar, with Thursday’s action hosted exclusively by the Old Course.

Cheltenham 2008 should have been remembered for Denman unseating the king, Kauto Star, in the Gold Cup; instead, those who were present on that fateful Wednesday can still hear the faint echo of the high winds in their ears to this day!

Hard to Bear

Horse Hoof on Frozen Ground
In stark contrast to the wet and wild conditions the horses can expect at the 2018 edition of the festival, unfortunately the entrants to the 2006 meeting were not afforded the luxury of such soft footing.

A bout of extremely cold weather had caused frozen ground at Prestbury Park, with the official rating of good-to-firm used only sparingly in the festival’s 100+ years of existence.

Sadly, the surface was rather dangerous in places and was partly the cause for the deaths of some ten horses either at the festival or immediately after.

Three fatalities occurred in the four-mile National Hunt Chase, the longest and oldest race in Cheltenham’s schedule, and an enquiry was conducted by the Horseracing Regulatory Authority to determine whether the renewal should be outlawed.

They eventually decided it should not, pending changes to safety and conditions, and the renewal remains to this day as the National Hunt Challenge Cup.

Foot in Mouth

British Cattle Farmer

Although not weather-related as such, the 2001 edition of the Cheltenham Festival was abandoned completely due to the outbreak of the Foot-and-Mouth epidemic in Britain.

This outbreak swept through farmland and the countryside, and ultimately led to 10 million cows and sheep having to be put down in the UK.

Organisers had no choice but to cancel the festival, first from its traditional March slot and then the rescheduled April dates, as Cheltenham fell into one of the geographical exclusion zones set up to try and combat the spread of the disease.

This was the only incidence in the modern era of the festival being completely wiped out.

Previous Post: « Big Fight Previews – Saturday March 3rd 2018: Expect Brook to Deliver Conclusive Statement of Intent
Next Post: Champions League Last 16, Second Leg Preview: Poch to Earn his Spurs on Momentous Night at Wembley »

Primary Sidebar

Blog

Silverstone Straight and Grandstand
Is Silverstone in Danger of Becoming One of the Most Dangerous F1 Tracks?
Golden Dollar Sign on USA Flag
Free Agency: American Sports’ Own Transfer Window That Sees Billions of Dollars Changing Hands
Cheering Fans in 3D Stadium
Which World Cup Has Had the Highest Attendances?
Frankie Dettori and John Gosden
Frankie Dettori and John Gosden: The Best Wins of Their Hugely Successful Partnership
Cricket Umpire Gesturing Out
What are the Strangest Dismissals in Cricket?
More Blog Posts | Full Archives

Archives

Betting Sign Up Offers

  • Free Bets
    • Bet £5 Get £20/£30+
  • Casino Bonuses
  • Free Spins

Loyalty Offers

  • Acca Bonuses
  • Acca Insurance
  • Best Odds Guaranteed
  • Free Bet Clubs
  • Loyalty Points

Major Events

  • Grand National
    • How to Pick the Grand National Winner
    • Grand National Winners
    • Grand National Fences
    • Prize Money
    • Disruptions & Cancellations
    • Back to Back Winners
    • How Often Does the Favourite Win?
    • What is the Virtual Grand National?
    • Grand National Sponsors
    • Reserve Horses
    • How Many Horses Finish?
    • How Many Horses Run?
    • Most Successful Owners
    • Changes Over Time
    • Female Jockeys
    • Grey Horses in the Grand National
    • Amateur Jockeys
    • Popularity
  • Cheltenham Festival
    • Festival Disruptions & Cancellations
    • Old Course v New Course
    • The Prestbury Cup
    • Top Trainers
    • Top Jockeys
    • Amateur Races
  • Premier League
    • Without the Big Six?
  • Irish Lottery

Related Posts

  • Frankie Dettori and John Gosden: The Best Wins of Their Hugely Successful Partnership
  • RIP Lester Piggott: The Life and Times of One of Horse Racing’s Pioneers
  • Going Out on a High: Sam Waley-Cohen Retires After Grand National Glory
  • Can You Clone a Racehorse? And Would Cloned Horses Be Allowed to Race?
  • Are British Trainers and Owners Giving In to Irish Dominance at the Cheltenham Festival?
  • Is JP McManus the Most Successful Racehorse Owner Ever after Recording 4000th Win?
  • BHA Reveals Changes to Minimum Weight Rules for Jockeys
  • Could the Freddy Tylicki Case Against Graham Gibbons Change the Way that Jockeys Ride?
  • The Controversial Use of Drones in Horse Racing Reaches the House of Lords
  • Is Brexit Killing UK Horse Racing?

Betting Blog

  • American Football
  • Athletics
  • Betting Industry
  • Boxing
  • Cricket
  • Darts
  • Football
  • General
  • Golf
  • Horse Racing
  • Motor Racing
  • Politics
  • Rugby
  • Snooker
  • Tennis
betting-sites.co.uk
gambling-sites.co.uk

Copyright © 2022 Betting-Offers.com | BeGambleAware.org 18+