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Event Information:
The Cheltenham Festival is the most
prestigious meeting in the National
Hunt racing calendar in the United
Kingdom, and has race prize money
second only to the Grand National.
It is an event where many of the
best British and Irish trained
horses race against each other, the
extent of which is relatively rare
during the rest of the season.
The festival takes place annually in
March at Cheltenham Racecourse in
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The
meeting is often very popular with
Irish visitors, mostly because of
that nation's affinity with horse
racing, but also because it usually
coincides with Saint Patrick's Day,
a national holiday in celebration of
the patron saint of Ireland.
Huge amounts of money are bet during
festival week, with hundreds of
millions of pounds being gambled
over the four days. Cheltenham is
often noted for its atmosphere, most
notably the "Cheltenham roar", which
refers to the enormous amount of
noise that the crowd generates as
the starter raises the tape for the
first race of the festival. For
several years there have been
concerns about the high number of
injuries and fatalities to horses.
This was brought to a head in 2006
when 11 horses died. In response the
racecourse decreased the number of
runners in certain races and
re-sited one of the more difficult
fences. However, some animal rights
groups do not accept that this is
sufficient.
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