Record crowds on first day at Cheltenham Festival

Published by

Nicky Godding

A crowd of 67,934 was a new record figure for the opening day of Cheltenham Festival, Champion Day.

Last year's attendance on the Tuesday came to 66,632, with the previous record for the day being 67,770 in 2016. The four-day Festival, which includes the iconic Gold Cup race on Friday, brings in well over £100 million to the Gloucestershire economy.

And despite heavy winds overnight, Racing is scheduled to take place today.

The opening day produced the second-biggest Totepool Placepot dividend of all time as one on-course customer took home a spectacular £182,567.80 for a £2 straight line bet, in which they selected only one horse in each race.

The net pool of £958,481.10 was shared by just 10.50 winning units, producing a dividend of £91,283.10, only a few hundred pounds short of the record Placepot payout. Other on-course winners at Cheltenham included two customers who each collected £36.513.56 for a 40p share, having played in 10p unit stakes, while there were numerous 20p and 10p winners.

Totepool spokesman Matt Hulmes said: "We know how popular the toteplacepot is, and with dividends like this it's incredible to think this can be won without having a winner on the card. Over £1 million was bet into the toteplacepot on Tuesday.

"I'm sure plenty of those looking forward to Ladies' Day at Cheltenham tomorrow will fancy a flutter, and the toteplacepot continues to offer enjoyment and the potential to win huge sums for small stake."

Tuesday's results were so hard to find that both the win and place pools in the Scoop6, running every day during the Cheltenham Festival, were not won, meaning the money carries forward to Wednesday's bet. There is also a rollover of £32,572 in the totejackpot pool.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.