Thirsty Cheltenham punters are set to guzzle some 220,000 pints of Guinness at next week's festival.
The biggest race meeting of the year takes place at Prestbury Park from next Tuesday through to St Patrick's Day on Friday.
And with thousands of Irish racing fans set to descend on the Cotswolds, Guinness is set to be as popular as ever with punters.
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Research from betting.com reveals that the Cheltenham Festival ranks as the UK’s leading horse racing festival when it comes to downing drinks - at least when it comes to Guinness.
No other UK horse racing festival crowd gets through Guinness quite like Cheltenham, with the average 220,000 pints of Guinness guzzled each year a UK high. That’s approximately 55,000 pints of Guinness per each day of the festival, and that’s not even including the various lagers and ales poured during the four-day meeting.
For fans of fizz, it is thought that Cheltenham-goers get through 20,000 bottles of Champagne. That’s alongside 8,000 gallons of tea or coffee consumed at Cheltenham - enough to fill 128,000 cups.
While Cheltenham might be the most popular place for a pint of Guinness when it comes to race meetings, it is also one of the most expensive, with 2022’s prices pouring in at a purse-popping £7.00 (€7.92)
Elsewhere, Cheltenham also tops the expensive list when it comes to alternative alcoholic drinks such as ale (Doom Bar) and lager (Carling) - these are priced at £7.00 (€7.92) and £6.90 (€7.80) respectively. Meanwhile, the most expensive pint at Cheltenham is Czech pilsner, Pravha, which costs attendees an astonishing £7.40 (€8.37).
Costs associated with attending the meeting have continued to sky rocket in recent years, with a Club Enclosure ticket costing £100 per day for the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while it is £125 for the Friday, which is sold out.
But the ever-increasing costs have not stopped thousands upon thousands of Irish punters making their annual pilgrimage to the home of jump racing.
And they'll be hoping to cheer on plenty of Irish winners at the meeting over the four days, with Carlow trainer Willie Mullins aiming to add to his ten winners from last year, which took his total tally at the festival to 88.
The Closutton maestro is 1/8 with the bookies to be crowned the top trainer at the meeting again ahead of Meath handler Gordon Elliott, who is 8/1, which is the same odds as those of top English trainer Nicky Henderson.
Ireland are once again expected to win the Prestbury Cup which English and Irish trainers battle it out for over the four days.
The home side have not won the trophy since 2015, with Ireland running out winners by 18-10 last year, while the score was a massive 23-5 in 2021.
Ireland are 1/10 with the bookies to win the Prestbury Cup for a seventh time since its inception in 2014, while the UK are 8/1 and a draw is 10/1.
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