Cheltenham’s November meeting heralds real start of National Hunt season

There are nine days of racing at Cheltenham each season before the track’s festival meeting in March. This time next week, with the showpiece event still four months away, five will be in the form book. It is, on the face of it, rather a waste of a magnificent racecourse (or two racecourses, since the New course takes over from the Old after the final afternoon of the November meeting on Sunday).

But the paucity of racing at the home of jumping is, to some extent, the point. Cheltenham racing is National Hunt’s most precious resource and an increase in the supply would debase the currency. It would also diminish the anticipation for the three-day meeting that has attracted nearly 400 entries.

This meeting is in rude health on both sides of the running rail. The abrupt decline in attendance at the festival has been well-documented, but Cheltenham’s second-best meeting has reversed the trend since a one-off post-Covid boom in the 2021-22 season. Like the festival attendance, the total crowd for the November meeting dropped the following season. Unlike the festival, however, where the decline has continued, the November crowd has edged back up in the past two years.

It can only be a positive sign for the track’s management team as they set out to address their festival problem. Cheltenham in general retains its appeal to the fans, even if some of them have – hopefully temporarily – fallen out of love with the festival-going experience. If the festival-specific issues can be identified and addressed the track’s showpiece event should regain its appeal.

For owners and trainers, the pre-festival meetings are an invaluable chance to give their best prospects vital experience on the uniquely demanding track where 28 horses will become festival winners next spring.

Three of last season’s festival winners – Wodhooh, Jagwar and Stumptown – were last-time-out winners at Cheltenham. Five more ran on the penultimate start before the festival, including Haiti Couleurs and Jango Baie, both of whom won at the December meeting. There could be a festival winner lurking in the field for any of the 19 races.

The popular Jonbon will race on the opening day of Cheltenham’s November meeting. Photograph: Steven Cargill/racingfotos.com/Shutterstock

While there are no Grade One events at this – or any other – pre-festival meeting, there will be past, and probably future, Grade One winners in action, starting with the ever-popular Jonbon in Friday’s Shloer Chase.

James Owen, whose growing strength on the flat and over jumps is one of the stories of 2025, has won the opening juvenile hurdle on Saturday’s card the past two seasons. It will be fascinating to see which of his three entries gets the nod to attempt to follow Burdett Road – last year’s Champion Hurdle runner-up – and East India Dock, who went on to be beaten less than a length in the Triumph Hurdle having set off as the 5-4 favourite.

The feature event on Saturday is quite simply one of those races that tend to get inside a punter’s head at an early stage in their betting career and never entirely move out. It has been staged under many banners since Mackeson – an alcohol brand so ancient it was once marketed as a drink that could be good for your health – dropped its sponsorship after 35 years in 1995.

Its status as the first big handicap chase of the winter campaign has never been in doubt, however, and this year’s running of the Paddy Power Gold Cup will be the only race on many minds on Saturday morning. The memory of many winners tends to fade with time, but most punters of a certain age, I suspect, would be able to glance down the list of this race’s winners and recall which ones they were on.

In theory, the 2025-26 jumps season started in early May, For practical and, perhaps more importantly, spiritual purposes, it will begin when the field sets off for the conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle at 1.10pm on Friday. Every rare afternoon of action below Cleeve Hill will be one to anticipate and cherish.