Gold Cup: One PR's relations with the public

Photo: Telegraph.co.uk

Cheltenham Gold Cup Festival: Are we going to the races...or going to the dogs?

Last year’s Gold Cup Festival broke attendance records, with 235,125 race-goers descending on our town over the four days. Good fun I’m sure was had by all who attended and many in the town (mainly the bars of course) were all the more prosperous for their visit.

However, for this Cheltenham resident, all the hordes brought with them was misery and mess, evidently leaving their manners behind wherever they had come from.  It’s this memory that made me look forward to Gold Cup 2014 about as much as being hit by a bus, and saw me making plans to escape for the duration of the week that Cheltenham actually goes to the dogs rather than the races.

Yet my best laid plans didn’t quite come off, so I’ve found myself here, staying put at home near the train station, the first and last stop (or more likely pint) for thousands of race-goers.

But I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Cheltenham race-goers have improved their public relations, in the most literal sense.

Last year we saw many pavement pizzas, quite a few fights and a ridiculous amount of aggressive behaviour when trying to stop men-old-enough-to-know-better from doing unmentionables on our street and neighbours’ doorsteps.

This year, people have been really friendly, even apologetic for crowding the top of our road where there’s a rather popular race-day pub. And this time, when my partner was stopped on his way home from work to be asked directions to a particular watering hole, rather than being sworn at like last year, he was invited for a pint of the black stuff.

It seems to me that 2014’s race-goers have been of a much happier and friendlier disposition. Even #Cheltenham tweeters have been on good form.

 So my first hand experience of this annual event has been much improved and made me think twice about reaching for next year’s holiday forms already in a panic.

Cheltenham Gold Cup 2014 should be proud; its visitors have earned it some good PR just through good old human interaction.

 Rachel Meagher

Account Director

All Roads Lead to Cheltenham

This week Cheltenham will be staging one of the UK’s premier sporting events as the 2013 National Hunt Festival is staged at Prestbury Park, featuring four days of top class racing.

Racing is a great passion of mine, so I’d like to share some fantastic facts, followed by a few nags that may be worth a flutter…

The event attracts around 230,000 spectators generating ticket sales of more than £7 million, with 27 races, offering more than £3m in prize money, culminating with the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday.

The Festival has grown significantly over the years and now generates a staggering £50 million for the local economy. Some of the statistics are quite amazing:

- 5,000 temporary staff are employed
- 10,000 beds in the town are sold each night
- 220,000 pints of Guinness are consumed at the course
- 12,000 people sit down to lunch at the course each day
- 30,000 cars and 2,000 coaches bring people to the course
- Over 600 helicopter landings, making this the busiest temporary airfield in the country
- Over £1m cash is withdrawn from the cash machines on course
- Over £1m passes hands in the betting ring for each race
- Off course, bookmakers take more than £600m on the Festival
- Unknown amounts are gambled in all night poker schools

If this is your first visit to Cheltenham, you may be surprised to find that, unlike other sports events, the crowd is constantly moving from parade ring to the stands, to the bar, to the toilet, to the shops, not necessarily in that order. I suggest you try and take time to go into the centre of the course so you can get up close to the horses jumping a fence and appreciate the speed and bravery of the jockeys. It’s a great vantage point to take in the huge number of people in the stands opposite and to hear the roar when a well-backed horse wins, especially one from Ireland!

The Jockey Club is always looking at ways to develop facilities at the racecourse and they are going to be renovating some of the older stands over the next few years, which is long overdue and a welcome improvement. It will be strange not to see Edward Gillespie at the helm this year, as he stood down after more than 30 years as Chief Executive. His forward thinking and organisation have made such a huge contribution to growing the Festival, making the venue a lot more than ‘just a racecourse’, and a place of which the people of Cheltenham can feel justly proud.

No article about the Festival would be complete without a few pointers to some winners this week! So here are some long-range selections for all 27 races, that should give you a run for your money:


Tuesday

1.30 - Dodging Bullets
2.05 - Overturn
2.40 - Fruity O’Rooney
3.20 - Rock on Ruby
4.00 - Arabella Boy
4.40 - Quevega (each way alternative Kentford Gray Lady)
5.15 - Shangani

Wednesday

1.30 - Lyreen Legend
2.05 - Taquin de Seuil
2.40 - Unioniste
3.20 - Sprinter Sacre (each way alternative Somersby)
4.00 - Pendra
4.40 - Bordoni
5.15 - Golantilla

Thursday

1.30 - Aupcharlie
2.05 - Seymour Eric
2.40 - Menorah
3.20 - Reve de Sivola
4.00 - Poquelin
4.40 - Frisco Depot

Friday

1.30 - Our Conor
2.05 - Edgardo Sol
2.40 - Conneygree
3.20 (Gold Cup) - Sir Des Champs (each way alternative Captain Chris)
4.00 - Cottage Oak
4.40 - Art Professor
5.15 - Tanks For That

Enjoy!

Colin Spencer
Chairman