Upping the Ante: Canny punters see beyond the Cheltenham hysteria

The bigger festival may get all the hype, but the Midlands National offers attractive prospects

Cheltenham’s racing festival, taking place this week, is the fourth-largest sporting event in Britain, with a quarter of a million people attending.

That figure is swelled greatly by Irish racegoers, who spend more than €22 million at the four-day meet, with Ryanair and Aer Lingus boasting excellent business either side of that spend.

A study of Cheltenham’s economic impact carried out by Gloucestershire University showed that Irish people bought 57,375 tickets for the ...