Six key changes are being made to the Cheltenham Festival race programme from 2025, with alterations made to the conditions of five individual races at the event as well as new requirements for horses running in non-novice handicaps.

Last week it was leaked that both the Grade 1 Turners Novices' Chase and the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase would become handicaps next year. These changes have now been officially confirmed and it has also been revealed that the Grade 2 National Hunt Novices' Chase is also going to be a handicap and open to professional riders.

The full list of changes is as follows:

• The 2m 4f Turners (Golden Miller) Novices’ Chase will be replaced by a Grade 2 limited novice handicap chase over the same distance.

• The National Hunt Chase will become a Class 2 novice handicap chase (0-145), with amateur rider restrictions for jockeys removed to allow professionals to take part.

• The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase will be changed from a conditions race to a limited handicap.

• The race conditions for the Ryanair Mares’ Novices Hurdle will be changed to remove the penalty structure, resulting in a level weights contest.

• From 2023 any horse finishing in the first four of a qualifying race for the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle has been eligible for the race at the Festival. From 2025 the race conditions will be altered to provide a guaranteed run in the Pertemps Final for all winners of series qualifiers (provided they are within the weights at declaration stage).

• Currently horses must have run at least three times (chases) or four times (hurdles) to be eligible to run in non-novice handicaps at the Festival. From 2025, this will be increased to four chase and five hurdle runs.

In addition to these changes The Jockey Club will be increasing prize money over the four days by £115,000, taking the total on offer at the Festival to £4,930,000 in 2025.

Walsh and Nicholls welcome changes

Former jockey Ruby Walsh was one of those consulted about the race programme changes.

He said: “All the changes are geared towards making the races more competitive. The aim is to attract as many of the best horses as possible to run at the Cheltenham Festival and for them to run in the right races.

“Cheltenham is the pinnacle of jump racing and these changes help to maintain that. Of course there will be some people who think these changes go too far and there will be some who think they don’t go far enough. The important thing to remember is that those making these changes have done so in the best interests of jump racing and the Festival.”

Top trainer Paul Nicholls also welcomed the changes. He said: “On the whole these changes sound very sensible. Everybody has different opinions and you cannot please everybody at the same time, but I think we have to try and make the racing as competitive as possible as that is what the Cheltenham Festival is all about."

Jon Pullin, the Jockey Club’s head of racing and clerk of the course at Cheltenham, said: “When we started this process we had five clear objectives that any changes we would make should adhere to, with the first being equine welfare, which will always be our number one priority.

“After that the changes needed to play their part in creating a race programme that attracts the best horses from the UK, Ireland and France and we also wanted to ensure that all races are as competitive as possible.

"Any changes we implement obviously have to benefit not only the Festival race programme but also have a positive impact on jump racing in general and, finally, we wanted to make sure that the Festival continues to innovate and evolve.

“We spoke to more than 50 individuals as part of the process and more directly with participants, including leading owners, trainers and jockeys. It was important to give everyone an opportunity to state where the Festival currently stands for them and where they believe improvements could be made."

Customer experience

A number of changes are being made with the aim of improving the experience for racegoers attending the Festival. These include:

• More hard-standing ‘trackway’ will be laid in Cheltenham Racecourse’s grass car parks than ever before. Covering an area the size of 17 football pitches this will aid the arrival and departure of racegoers, especially in the kind of adverse weather conditions experienced earlier this year.

• All ticket prices for the 2025 Cheltenham Festival will be frozen at 2024 levels.

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