New Cheltenham Festival Running Order Revealed for 2025

The 2025 Cheltenham Festival will have a new, refreshed running order. The news comes as ITV has also agreed to show one extra race per day live at the meeting.

Cheltenham enjoyed an increase in visitors for its October meeting. The hope is that things are back on the up in racing, though this week’s budget could still have an effect.

Four More Live Races

Row of Television Cameras

Those watching the Festival will now see four more live races during the week. Six races per day will now be broadcast.

Previously, the Fred Winter, the Grand Annual, the Plate and then Hunter Chase were not shown live. They are now part of ITV’s line-up which will show 24 of the 28 Festival races.

New Cheltenham Festival Schedule (2025)

In other news, the timings of then Cheltenham Festival have also been adapted on each day. Now, the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, they Stayers’ Hurdle and the big one, the Gold Cup, are to be fifth on the schedule each day.

The 2025 Festival also now begins earlier, with a 1.20 start planned.

Tuesday, March 11

  1. 1:20 – Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
  2. 2:00 – Arkle Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)
  3. 2:40 – Ultima Handicap Chase
  4. 3:20 – Mares’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
  5. 4:00 – Champion Hurdle (Grade 1)
  6. 4:40 – Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
  7. 5:20 – National Hunt Chase Novices’ Handicap

Wednesday, March 12

  1. 1:20 – Turner Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
  2. 2:00 – Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase
  3. 2:40 – Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle
  4. 3:20 – Cross Country Limited Handicap Chase
  5. 4:00 – Queen Mother Champion Chase (Grade 1)
  6. 4:40 – Grand Annual Handicap Chase
  7. 5:20 – Champion Bumper (Grade 1)

Thursday, March 13

  1. 1:20 – Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2)
  2. 2:00 – Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase
  3. 2:40 – Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle
  4. 3:20 – Ryanair Chase (Grade 1)
  5. 4:00 – Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
  6. 4:40 – Plate Handicap Chase
  7. 5:20 – Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase

Friday, March 14

  1. 1:20 – Triumph Hurdle (Grade 1)
  2. 2:00 – County Handicap Hurdle
  3. 2:40 – Mares’ Chase (Grade 2)
  4. 3:20 – Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1)
  5. 4:00 – Cheltenham Gold Cup (Grade 1)
  6. 4:40 – Festival Hunter Chase
  7. 5:20 – Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle

Prize money across the four days is set at just a shade under £5 million. Days one and two are still to be run on the Old Course, with the following two days staged on the New Course as always.

This line-up still means of course that the Champion Bumper, being the last event scheduled for Wednesday, will not be shown live on ITV. The Champion Bumper is a Grade 1 event and perhaps should have taken priority over another race.

With more channels available these days, in this case the provision for using ITV4 and the likes, it’s surprising that not all Festival races are broadcast.

All 35 Royal Ascot races are broadcast in the summer, while until this announcement only 20 Cheltenham Festival races were shown live.

It will be very interesting to check the viewing figures of the sixth live race of each day when the figures are released next March.