Organisers of the 2023 Cheltenham Festival have been dealt a blow by the theft of a famous trophy.
The Grand Annual Steeple Chase cup was snatched during the break-in on Thursday evening. Police were informed it went missing with several other items during a burglary at Camelot Silverware in Sheffield.
Staff at the business were working on the cup ahead of the prestigious four-day meeting, which begins on March 14. Officers from South Yorkshire Police are investigating and have appealed for witnesses to the incident at around 6pm.
The Grand Annual, won in 2022 by the Ben Pauling-trained Global Citizen, is the oldest race at the Festival.
A statement from the force said: “Several items of silverware were taken during the burglary, including the famous and distinctive Grand Annual Steeple Chase Cheltenham trophy, which was being worked on ahead of the Cheltenham Festival in March.”
Over the years, the Grand Annual has been held at various venues until it returned to Cheltenham in 1913. When it was created, the race was a three-mile contest over open land at Andoversford, a short drive from Prestbury Park.
In 2005 it was renamed after Johnny Henderson, the father of one of the UK's top National Hunt racing trainers, Nicky Henderson. His stable has the shortest-priced ante-post favourite for next month's meeting, Constitution Hill in the Unibet Champion Hurdle.
The shock theft comes just days after it was announced that Cheltenham Racecourse's owners were scrapping the dress code at its tracks.
Including Aintree, the home of the Grand National, the group's controversial decision was widely debated by racing fans. Punters are used to being restricted on their outfit choice but will now be free to wear what they want at the 15 venues following an extensive review.
The Jockey Club's chief executive Nevin Truesdale believes it will modernise the experience for racegoers.
"It's really important to us to be accessible and inclusive," he said. "We hope that by no longer placing an expectation upon people of what they should and shouldn't wear we can help highlight that racing really is for everyone. When we reviewed this area of the raceday experience, it has been clear to us that enforcing a dress code seems rather outdated in the 21st Century in the eyes of many of our racegoers.
"Of course that doesn't mean we are discouraging people from dressing up for a day at the races if they want to."
However fancy dress, replica sports shirts and any other clothing deemed offensive will still be prohibited.
