Cheltenham Festival Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. It is an event where many of the best British- and Irish-trained horses race to an extent 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 usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day, and is particularly popular with Irish visitors. It features several Grade I races including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase
Horse racing in the United States based. The backstretch has extensive facilities to house the horses and workers. In the United States, Thoroughbred flat races are run on either dirt, synthetic or turf surfaces. Other tracks offer Quarter Horse racing and Standardbred horse racing, or combinations of these three types of racing surfaces. Racing with other breeds, such as Arabian horse racing, is found on a limited basis. American Thoroughbred races are run at a wide variety of distances, most commonly from . The shorter distances are more common but the mid-to-long distance races tend to be higher in prestige. With this in mind, breeders of