The dates of the Cheltenham Festival 2023 are Tuesday 14 March to Friday 17 March 2022.

The highlight of the jump racing season – the 2022 Cheltenham Festival – promised top-class racing from the start and it did not disappoint. The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle got the action off to a fantastic start with Constitution Hill proving more than a match for his rivals, including Jonbon and Dysart Dynamo, to set a new course record and take the win by some distance.

Later on day one, 2021 Champion Hurdle winner, Honeysuckle proved her worth by becoming the first mare to win the race twice, beating Appreciate It, Teahupoo and previous race winner Epatante in the big one, as The Festival continued to provide incredible head-to-head battles between the world’s best National Hunt horses.

On the second day of top-flight jump racing we saw Energumene emerge triumphant in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, while dual Grand National winner Tiger Roll said farewell to his fans after finishing a close second in the Glenfarclas Cross-Country Chase.

On day three, the unbeaten Bob Olinger won the Turners’ Novices’ Chase after Galopin Des Champs fell at the last fence, while Flooring Porter claimed the Stayers’ Hurdle for a second year in a row.

The final day of the Festival saw Rachael Blackmore collect her first Cheltenham Gold Cup title with A Plus Tard, ahead of last year’s winner, Minella Indo, giving trainer Henry de Bromhead a second one-two in the race.

Follow all the Cheltenham Festival results

The Festival is an embarrassment of riches for racing fans with 14 Grade One races spread across the four days.

The most prestigious race at the meeting is Friday’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, which has been won by such iconic horses as Arkle, Golden Miller, Best Mate, Kauto Star and Denman. History was made in 2022 when Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to win the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival on board A Plus Tard, trained by Henry de Bromhead and owned by Cheveley Park Stud.

Other top races held at the festival include the Champion Hurdle (Tuesday), the Queen Mother Champion Chase (Wednesday) and the Stayers’ Hurdle (Thursday).

The Cheltenham Festival also hosts the Festival Hunters’ Chase, formerly called the Foxhunter Chase, for amateur riders. Around the same course and distance as the Cheltenham Gold Cup, it typically follows the famous race on the final day of The Festival.

View the full Cheltenham Festival race card for a day-by-day rundown of every race.

Ruby Walsh has ridden 59 winners at the Cheltenham Festival and was crowned leading jockey at the Festival on 11 occasions between 2004 and 2017 before retiring in 2019. On two occasions he set the record of riding seven winners across the four-day Festival, the first time in 2009 and again in 2016.

Rachael Blackmore became the first female jockey to claim the leading jockey award at the Festival after riding six winners in 2021. In 2022 she added becoming the first female jockey to win both the Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup to her outstanding list of career highlights.

Golden Miller holds the record for winning the most Cheltenham Gold Cups. He won the race five years in a row, from 1932 to 1936, and in 1934 he became the only horse ever to win the Grand National at Aintree and the Gold Cup in the same season.

Cottage Rake (1948-1950), Arkle (1963-1965) and Best Mate (2002-2004) all won the race three times in consecutive years, claiming their place in the history books.

W A Baring Bingham purchased the Prestbury Park area where the racecourse sits, in 1881, with the intention of turning it into a stud farm, before realising there was an appetite for horseracing in the area.

As a result, he decided to host a race meeting in 1898 — it proved popular enough to host more racing there the following year, and it continued to grow in popularity until, in 1902, it played host to a National Hunt Festival in mid-April.

Two years later the National Hunt Chase was moved to Prestbury Park for successive years, having first run at Market Harborough in 1860, and in 1911 Cheltenham Racecourse became the race’s permanent home.

The 1911 running of this fixture was classed as the first Cheltenham Festival as we think of it today.

Learn more about the Cheltenham Festival’s history