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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Greg Wood

Cheltenham festival switch to Saturday a gamble not worth taking

Cheltenham saw an increased attendance at its season-opening Showcase meeting over the weekend.
Cheltenham saw an increased attendance at its season-opening Showcase meeting over the weekend. Photograph: David Davies/PA

For the fourth year running, Cheltenham saw an increased attendance at its season-opening Showcase meeting over the weekend, as 31,125 racegoers made their way to the home of jumps racing. The total was a record since what was previously a midweek meeting moved to a Friday/Saturday slot in 2007, while the 21,113 crowd on Saturday was also a record for the second day of the meeting.

It was a very positive start, in other words, to Guy Lavender’s first full season as the chief executive at Cheltenham, and the man tasked with turning around the sudden – and still largely unexplained – slump in attendance at the festival meeting over the last three years.

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