The Cheltenham racecourse executive rolled into Dublin today to share some specific statistical analysis they commissioned with the University of Gloucestershire regarding the Irish contribution to what is termed 'The Olympics of National Hunt Horse Racing'.
The Irish affinity with Cheltenham goes back to Vincent O'Brien's dominance in the late 1940's, which was followed by Arkle's 3 Gold Cup triumphs between 1964 and 1966. Dawn Run and Istabraq have generated brilliant memories for the Irish sporting public, and last year there were 15 Irish trained winners at Cheltenham, more than the home contingent. The Champion Hurdle was won by the Willie Mullins trained Annie Power, with Gordon Elliott's Don Cossack (pictured above) the Gold Cup champion. Sadly, both horses will miss the defence of their titles because of injury, but new champions will be crowned and new stories will be told.
So what did we learn today:
- Irish visitors spent €22.3 million at the Festival in 2016
- The volume of Irish customers has increased 22% since 2010
- An average of 14,343 visitors from Ireland attended each day of the four day meeting last year
- There were 144 Irish runners last year, in comparison to 66 back in 1998
- 20,000 Irish people flew with airline Ryanair to the Festival
Cheltenham 2017 begins on Tuesday March 14th, with the Gold Cup on St Patrick's Day. Tickets for Gold Cup day are expected to sell out in the next couple of days.
There was even a little bit of gold on show today at the Westbury Hotel in the capital:
I'll never be the winning owner, but I have managed to get my hands on the Cheltenham Gold Cup! pic.twitter.com/tvmO1aapkI
— John Duggan (@jduggantodayfm) February 13, 2017
