There has been a social media meltdown for this year’s Cheltenham Festival as yesterday’s racing figures hit its lowest for 13 years.
Our racing reporter Ash Symonds could visibly see “the amount of space there was today especially in front of the stands during the Champion Chase.”
Compared to last year’s 50,387 racegoers, there was a big decrease with only 46,771 people attending the festival on what was known as ‘Ladies Day’ but now called ‘Style Day’.
This could be a big reason why many racing fans have decided not to go with controversy surrounding the name change.
After interviewing many women on ‘Style Day’ they were disappointed with the name change as “it has always been a day for the women to celebrate during the races but now it feels different.”
Many racing fans were quick to complain about how expensive food and drinks are within the festival, with pints costing as much as £8.50.
In previous years pints have been £6-£7 but with the cost-of-living crisis, companies feel like they must increase their prices.
Its not just the pints at the races but also the drinks within pubs around Cheltenham increasing their prices because they know people will still buy the drinks.
Racing fan Sarah Hawkins posted “Ticket prices increase & race quality down.”
Of course, this doesn’t help when fan favourite horse ‘Constitution Hill’ wasn’t fit to race at this years event.
But that being said there were still many fantastic racehorses who were set
to race including the likes of Gallop des champ, Jonbon and State Man
Hawkins went on to say, “The cost of food and drinks is extortionate,
not to mention the queues.”
However, other racing fans don’t mind the decrease in racegoers as in
previous years it has been labelled as ‘dangerously busy’ to the point where
many people couldn’t move.
Factor in the cost of living, transport delays, cancellations and the ticket
prices themselves, it comes as no shock to why fans would rather watch it at
the pub with their mates.
The weather might have also played a factor in the attendance figures with
expected rain throughout the week which can be frustrating for people
attending.
Fans are also finding different ways to avoid these ridiculous prices, this
prudent punter was caught smuggling alcohol into her binoculars!
So, what does this mean for racing, specifically the Cheltenham Festival?
Well, many fans have called for prices of the event to be lowered and food/drinks to be cheaper especially with the cost of living going up.
The festival is still expecting the Friday to be as popular as recent years with the gold cup bringing in the most viewers of any day.
Let us know what you think on our social media’s @parklife_sport.
