Five years on from an other-worldly Cheltenham festival which unfolded in the shadow of Covid-19, in front of packed stands that would soon become emblematic of the country’s hesitant stumble into lockdown, one of Britain’s most popular sporting events once again finds itself at a crossroads, after sharp declines in attendance in the last two years.
It is not a lingering hangover from the pandemic, or the result of racegoers losing the festival habit in 2021, when the meeting was staged behind closed doors. Far from it. The first post-covid festival with full attendance in 2022 attracted record crowds throughout the week to post a new high for the four days of nearly 281,000 racegoers.
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