Horse racing over the jumps comes to a grand climax at Cheltenham with the National Hunt Festival and its premier race The Gold Cup on 14 March. The Flat racing season gets off to a traditionally fine start the following weekend at Doncaster with the Lincoln Handicap Stakes. And then its all eyes on the Thames at Putney in London for the 148th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on 30th March.
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The three days of steeplechase and hurdle races at the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival with prize money of over £1 million, attract the finest horses from Britain and overseas. This is the landed-gentry horseracing event of the year with 16 races for professionals and three for amateur riders. We are in top Hunt country (there are four in the area), and Royalty resides just down the road. Highlights include the Smurfit Champion Hurdle (Tuesday), the Queen Mother's Champion Chase (Wednesday) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (Thursday).
The elegant spa town of Cheltenham is at the heart of England's "horse" country, and the event attracts large numbers of landed families, international visitors, and members of the Royal Family. Prince Charles, who looks distinctly uncomfortable in top hat and tails at Royal Ascot, is in his home element here among friends. This is the Queen Mother's favorite race meeting, (she specializes in racing hurdlers). Sadly she will be absent from this year's Festival due to health for the first time that I can remember but has promised to follow the racing on TV. The event happily coincides with the St. Patrick's Day holiday. There are many Irish horses entered and plenty of Irish punters at the bars and betting windows.
The Cheltenham National Hunt Festival, and Gold Cup Day in particular is a smart country event. Smart clothing is worn, with more formal wear (worsted suit and trilby for men) for those in the private boxes. A really smart lady from the Shires sports a discrete enamel horsepin from Asprey or Garrard on the lapel of her expensive tweed jacket. It has her family racing colors picked out. She will doubtless be wearing pearls but is likely to be too well wrapped up against the cold March winds for you to be able to admire them.
It is probably the first outing of the year for the family's old Fortnum & Mason picnic hamper. It will be filled with hot thermos flasks of soup rather than champagne on ice at this time of year. Chill winds make a hip flask of whisky a friendly accessory. If you are fortunate enough to be invited to join a Cheltenham house-party for the festival, do not forget to take evening dress for dinner, and a hot-water bottle (or suitably warm companion) for bed. Those elegant Edwardian houses in Cheltenham may be elegant but they can also be very draughty.
