Organisers of the Cheltenham Festival have announced changes aimed at improving competition and the experience of racegoers.
In a bid to increase interest and field sizes, conditions for five races will be altered from next year, with the Turners Novices' Chase being downgraded from a Grade One contest to a handicap chase.
It follows complaints about traffic and vehicles being stuck in the mud after heavy rain at this year’s event. “Throughout the course of this review process there have been three distinct strands which have been impossible to ignore – value for money, the need to provide the best experience possible and the competitiveness of the race programme.
Irish trainers won 18 of the 27 races at this year’s meeting - including 12 of the 14 top-level Grade One contests, of which eight were landed by Willie Mullins.The Grade One Turners Novices’ Chase will be replaced by a Grade Two novice handicap chase over the same distance. Horses must have run four times in chases and five in hurdles to be eligible for non-novice handicap races.
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