Summary
The Cheltenham Festival 2027 runs from Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March. Each day has seven races, from 1.20pm to 5.20pm, jump to Timings, and every day has a championship race. The Cheltenham Roar, jump to Tuesday goes up as the first race of the week starts on the Tuesday. Gold Cup Day is the Friday, jump to Friday, and it drew the biggest crowd of the week in 2026.
The Cheltenham Festival 2027 runs for four days, from Tuesday 16 March to Friday 19 March, at Cheltenham Racecourse in Gloucestershire. The Jockey Club runs the racecourse, and it has published these dates with the order of the races for each day. Our own 2027 Festival days fall on the same four dates.
The Festival is jump racing, which the sport calls National Hunt racing. Some races are over hurdles, which are the lower obstacles. Others are over steeplechase fences, which are bigger, and racing calls these races chases. Grade 1 is the top level of jump racing, and every day of the Festival has at least one Grade 1 championship race.
- Tuesday 16 March: Champion DayThe Champion Hurdle is the main race. The Cheltenham Roar goes up as the first race of the week starts.
- Wednesday 17 March: Ladies DayThe Queen Mother Champion Chase is the main race. A Best Dressed competition runs alongside the racing.
- Thursday 18 March: St Patrick’s ThursdayThe Stayers’ Hurdle and the Ryanair Chase are the main races. The Jockey Club gives the day an Irish theme.
- Friday 19 March: Gold Cup DayThe Gold Cup is the main race. Friday drew the biggest crowd of the week in 2026.
When the racing starts
The gates open at 10.30am on all four days. The first race is at 1.20pm and the last is at 5.20pm, and the races are scheduled to start 40 minutes apart. That makes seven races a day and 28 across the week. The Jockey Club says the times in its 2027 schedule can still change.
Each day’s championship race is at 4pm. Thursday is the exception, because it has two championship races, at 3.20pm and at 4pm.
In all four of the places we book, lunch is served before the racing starts. At the Chez Roux Restaurant, Champagne and canapés are served from 11am. The Final Fence Restaurant’s four-course buffet is available from noon. All four serve afternoon tea later in the day, and each one includes a complimentary bar.
Tuesday 16 March: Champion Day and the Cheltenham Roar
The Cheltenham Roar is the cheer that goes up as the starter sends off the first race of the Festival. That race is the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, at 1.20pm on the Tuesday. Novice races are for horses in the early stages of their careers over hurdles or fences.
The racecard is the printed programme of the day’s races and runners. A furlong is an eighth of a mile. In a handicap, the better horses carry more weight to even out the field. The Jockey Club’s 2027 schedule gives this Tuesday card.
1.20pm
The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 1 race for novice hurdlers, and it opens the Festival.
2pm
The Arkle Challenge Trophy is a Grade 1 chase over about two miles.
2.40pm
The Fred Winter is a handicap hurdle over about two miles.
3.20pm
The Ultima Handicap Chase is run over three miles and a furlong.
4pm
The Champion Hurdle is the day’s championship race.
4.40pm
The Plate is a handicap chase over about two and a half miles.
5.20pm
The National Hunt Chase is a handicap chase for novices over about three miles and six furlongs.
The Champion Hurdle is the championship for hurdlers over about two miles, and it has been a Tuesday race since 1980. It was first run in 1927. The 2027 Festival comes a hundred years after that first running, and the Jockey Club has said it will mark the anniversary.
If you want the opening of the week, Tuesday gives you the Roar and a championship race in the same afternoon.
Wednesday 17 March: Ladies Day
Wednesday is Ladies Day, and its championship race is the Queen Mother Champion Chase at 4pm. It is the championship for chasers over two miles. The Jockey Club runs a Best Dressed competition through the day. Wednesday is the day for a group that wants a championship race and a reason to dress up.
Our Ladies Day guide covers why the name came back in 2026 and what the day is like.
Thursday 18 March: St Patrick’s Thursday
Thursday has two Grade 1 championship races. The Stayers’ Hurdle at 3.20pm is the championship for hurdlers over about three miles. It has been a Thursday race since 1993. The Ryanair Chase follows at 4pm. It is run over about two and a half miles.
The Jockey Club gives St Patrick’s Thursday an Irish theme. In 2027 St Patrick’s Day itself falls on Wednesday 17 March, the day before.
Form is a horse’s record of past results. If your group follows the form, Thursday gives you two championship races scheduled 40 minutes apart.
Friday 19 March: Gold Cup Day
The Gold Cup is the last championship race of the week, at 4pm on the Friday. It is run over about three miles and two and a half furlongs, and the horses jump 22 fences. It is open to horses aged five and over.
The race was first run as a steeplechase in 1924, and a horse called Red Splash won it. Cheltenham got the original 1924 trophy back in 2018. It now goes to each year’s winner as a perpetual trophy, and the winning owners keep a replica.
Gaelic Warrior won the Gold Cup in 2026. Paul Townend rode the winner, and it was his fifth Gold Cup, which is a record for a jockey. It was also the fifth Gold Cup for the trainer Willie Mullins, which equals Tom Dreaper’s record.
The Triumph Hurdle opens the Friday card at 1.20pm, and the seventh race at 5.20pm closes the Festival.
Friday is the day for the Gold Cup itself. Its crowd of 67,016 in 2026 was the biggest of the week.
Club, Tattersalls and Best Mate: the three enclosures
An enclosure is a fenced area of the racecourse with its own entrances, bars and places to watch from. Cheltenham has three for the Festival. The Club Enclosure has views from the main grandstand, the Members’ lawn and the winning post. Its racegoers can also go into every part of Tattersalls.
Tattersalls has its own grandstand viewing steps near the winning post, and its racegoers can use the Guinness Village and the Parade Ring, where the horses are walked before each race. Best Mate is across the track from the main grandstand, close to the finish line.
All four of the places we book for 2027 include admission to the Club Enclosure.
The Chez Roux Restaurant
It is on the third floor, and its balcony looks over the racecourse. Michel Roux Jr designs the four-course lunch menu. This is the one for a group whose lunch matters as much as the racing.
The Final Fence Restaurant
It is on the second floor, and its balcony looks over the last fence before the run up the hill to the winning post. From here you watch the horses take the last fence.
The Long Run Box
A group of eight to twelve sits at its own table, and the viewing balcony is directly outside the box. A tipster, whose job is to give advice on which horses might win, is on hand through the racing. It keeps your group together all day.
The Platinum Suite
It is a marquee in the Courtyard, near the finishing straight and the Parade Ring. A tipster talks guests through the racecard. It puts you a short walk from the horses.
Matching the day and the place you sit at the racecourse to your group is part of what we do. It starts with which day you have in mind and how many guests are coming.
Cheltenham has no official dress code. The Jockey Club doesn’t allow fancy dress in the Club Enclosure or in the hospitality restaurants. Our Cheltenham Festival dress code guide covers what to wear for a day at the races in March.
The Guinness Village
The Guinness Village is in the Tattersalls Enclosure. Guinness sponsors it, and it has several bars and food stalls. Live music plays there through each day. The bars serve Guinness on draught and an alcohol-free Guinness.
Club racegoers can go into Tattersalls, so our guests can walk over to the Village. The Chez Roux Restaurant and The Final Fence Restaurant both sit to the left of it. An hour in the Village shows your guests the Festival crowd before they go back to their table for the big race.
Between races
The races are scheduled to start 40 minutes apart. Before each race the runners are led round the Parade Ring, which is the place to see them up close.
Our guide to betting at the races explains the odds, each-way bets and how to read the racecard.
The Irish side of the Festival
The Jockey Club keeps score of the rivalry between British and Irish trainers with the Prestbury Cup. It counts the winners trained in each country across all 28 races. In 2019 the two countries drew, with 14 winners each. The cup is named after Prestbury, the village nearest the racecourse.
Irish trainers have a long record in the Gold Cup. Vincent O’Brien trained Cottage Rake to win three in a row from 1948 to 1950. Tom Dreaper then trained Arkle to win three in a row from 1964 to 1966. Willie Mullins, who won the 2026 Gold Cup with Gaelic Warrior, also trains in Ireland.
Staying the night in Cheltenham
Cheltenham Racecourse is at Prestbury Park, about two miles from the centre of Cheltenham. The town’s restaurants are a short drive from the course.
The Promenade is a long, central street in the town. Imperial Gardens, a public garden, lies just off it behind the Municipal Offices. Montpellier is at the southern end of the Promenade. It grew up around a spa whose first pump room opened in 1809, and it now has many of the town’s bars and restaurants. Montpellier Walk has caryatids, which are carved female figures that stand in for pillars between the shopfronts.
Cheltenham has two restaurants with a Michelin star in the 2026 guide. Le Champignon Sauvage is on Suffolk Road, near Montpellier. Lumière is in the town centre.
Pittville is on the north side of the town, between the centre and the racecourse. It was planned in the 1820s around the Pittville Pump Room, which was finished in 1830. The Pump Room is a Grade I listed building, and the spa water is still pumped up to the original marble pump inside.
Sian Jones
Sport Events Operations Manager
Sport Events Operations Manager at Imperial Corporate Events. She’s the one on the ground making sure your day runs, from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to Royal Ascot.
