Cheltenham racecourse has cancelled its remaining three racedays of the 2025/6 season owing to on-course drainage work.
The two-day April Meeting (15 to 16 April) will not go ahead and the four key races will be staged elsewhere. The card for the hunter chase evening (1 May) has been rescheduled to take place at Warwick on the same day.
Jon Pullin, Cheltenham’s head of racing and clerk of the course, said the racecourse’s priority is “always to provide the best possible racing surface for top-class jump racing”.
“Throughout the very wet winter, we have experienced a number of issues on the track and working with drainage experts, we have identified an area that would benefit from being upgraded,” he said.
“This will allow us to address the issues we believe contributed to the hole appearing on Festival Trials Day and subsequently created challenges in other areas of the track. As a result of this we moved rail and hurdle positions to ensure we were providing the best surface for both the Old and New courses.”
He added: “While some sections of drains across the track are newer than others and drainage improvements like this are typically carried out at the end of each season, given the scale of this project and the last two particularly dry summers we have decided to bring this work forward.
“This will mean that there is still sufficient moisture in the ground allowing more time for the course to recover ahead of next season.”
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Mr Pullin said that the racecourse looked at contingency plans to allow the April and May fixtures to go ahead, while also prioritising the ground works, but it “was not feasible to continue racing”.
“Although it is disappointing not to stage our final three racedays of the season, we are confident this is the right decision to give the course the opportunity to be in optimal condition for the start of the 2026-27 season in October,” he said, also thanking the British Horseracing Authority for its support.
Cheltenham racecourse chief executive Guy Lavender added: “Cheltenham is the home of jump racing and our focus will always be on providing the best facilities, on and off the track, which is why we are investing in this work.
“This was a decision that we gave a great deal of consideration to and, while we appreciate that racegoers will share in our disappointment at not being able to stage our last three fixtures of the season, it is vital to give the racing surface time to recover and allow our grounds team to prepare the track for October and next season’s jumps programme.”
A Jockey Club spokesperson said all general admission ticket holders will be automatically refunded and the racecourse team will contact hospitality bookers, members and annual box-holders.
The four key races from the cancelled April fixture have been rescheduled as follows:
The Mares Novices Handicap Chase at Market Rasen (14 April)
The Challenger Mares’ Chase Series Final Handicap Chase and the Challenger Mares’ Hurdle Series Final Handicap Hurdle Race at Warwick (23 April)
Fillies’ Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at Sandown Park (25 April)
Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.
