From Gloucester Echo
TOP racing pundit John McCririck has called for the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse to be extended to five days.
The larger-than-life celebrity – known as Big Mac – said he was delighted when the biggest jumps meeting in the world was moved to four days at Prestbury Park in 2005.
And now he wants racecourse bosses to take an even more radical and potentially controversial step by adding an extra day and running the Gold Cup – the most prestigious race in the sport – on the Saturday.
The March meeting, which generates around £50million for the town, will continue to run from Tuesday through to Friday for at least one more year.
Course bosses will then consider whether to start the Festival a day later.
McCririck admits the move to five days will take time, but sees no reason why it shouldn’t happen eventually.
He said: “Cheltenham is where everyone wants to be and everyone wants to win, and that’s why it’s good that it’s now four days.
“I think it should be Wednesday through Saturday and in the end I wouldn’t mind a five-day Cheltenham.
“It would be a long way ahead, though. The battle was 30 years ago to get it to four days.”
The Gold Cup, won this year by Denman, has been run on Friday following the extension of the meeting from three to four days.
It was run on the Thursday when that was the final day of a three-day meeting.
Edward Gillespie, managing director of the racecourse, says there are no immediate plans to move the Gold Cup to Saturday or extend the meeting to five days.
But he admitted that the future of the meeting was always under review.
Graham Townley, who runs Better Bookmakers in the High Street said: “We’d be all for it, we’d see an increase in business and more people in town.”
But he added: “From the point of view of a racing fan I wouldn’t want to see the extra races dilute the quality of the meeting.”
Chairman of Cheltenham Business Partnership, Martin Quantock, said an extra day, especially Saturday, might not be of benefit .
He added: “At the moment, from Tuesday to Friday, the town centre takes a bit of a hit.
“Local people stay away from the town because they think it is gridlocked. In fact it’s not, because everybody is at the racecourse, so if locals stay away it can be like a graveyard.”
He added: “Saturday is always a very important trading day and businesses make a third of their money on it in a normal week.
“It’s even more important after the Festival, when people have been away, so it might not benefit the town centre at all to have more racing if that keeps people away.”
Deputy-manager of O’Neill’s pub in Montpellier, Sarah Williams, approved of the idea.
She said: “We have extra staff for the whole week anyway, so we wouldn’t need more, although there would be extra pressure from increased trading hours.
“I think the extra trade with more people about would be good for us and also good for the town, so we’d be all in favour.”
County Councillor for Oakley, Pittville and Prestbury David Prince was against the idea.
He said: “I’m a racing fanatic and member of Cheltenham racecourse for over 20 years but I’m against it. The only reason to move the Gold Cup to Saturday is for television, it’s a financial consideration.”
“It would also bring Saturday shoppers into conflict with the racing, the park and ride at the racecourse would be unavailable, Cheltenham Town couldn’t play at home that day, and there’d be extra crowds, traffic and parking problems. To be honest four days is enough.”
