Cheltenham cancels final three racing fixtures of season

For the first time in six years, the Cheltenham Festival delivered two winners at 50-1 or more this year Cheltenham racecourse has cancelled the remaining three fixtures of the season to allow for improvements to drainage. The two-day meeting scheduled for 15 and 16 April, and the race night planned for 1 May will no longer take place. The 1 May fixture has been moved to Warwick racecourse.

Work on a significant part of the home straight will begin immediately to give the racing surface time to recover for the start of the 2026-27 season. Four horses died at this year's Cheltenham Festival - two on the final day. Jon Pullin, Cheltenham's head of racing and clerk of the course, said: "Our priority is always to provide the best possible racing surface for top-class Jump racing.

"Throughout the very wet winter, we have experienced a number of issues on the track and working with drainage experts, we have identified an area that would benefit from being upgraded. "Given the scale of this project and the last two particularly dry summers we have decided to bring this work forward. "