It is in March when the beautiful Cotswold hills come to life with 1000's of Irishmen and their fellow race goers ascending on Cheltenham Racecourse for the climax of the National Hunt Season.
Gloucestershire Oxfordshire Warwickshire Worcestershire Wiltshire
The Cheltenham Festival, when four days of exciting National Hunt horse racing help to make this the greatest jump
race meeting in the world.
Horse's have been raced in the Cotswolds since the Saxon times and maybe even earlier
but races have only been recorded for a little over 300 years, since Robert Dovers Cotswold Olimpicks
featured horse racing as part of the games.
The Bibury Club, the world's oldest racing club, was formed in 1681 and was holding race meetings
on Macaroni Downs above the small village of Bibury until the early part of the twentieth century.
The Bibury Club Meeting held at Salisbury race course is one of Britain's longest-running meetings.
There are several racecourses available to the race goer in or near to the Cotswolds,
and during the early spring months there are many point to point race meetings.
- Bath
- Stratford-upon-Avon
- Cheltenham
- Warwick
- Worcester
The Cotswolds is an area which attracts some of the racing worlds top trainers and it is estimated that more than one in 10 of National Hunt horses are trained in Gloucestershire alone.
Nigel Twiston-Davies
Tom George
Richard Phillips
Mary Hambro
David Wintle
Julian Smith
David Bridgewater
Dr Philip Pritchard
John Gallagher
Susan Nock
Owen O’Neil
Graeme Roe
Ralph Smith
John Tuck
Jim Wilson
Norman Babbage
David Bridgwater
Liam Grassick
Ben Case
Simon Gilmore
Milton Harris
Colin Hemsley
Mark Rimmell
Paul Webber
Trelawney Hill
Robin Dickin
Anabel King
Peter Pritchard
Barbara Waring
Martyn Meade
Adrian Chamberlain
Giles Smyly
