Cheltenham, Gloucestershire UK, is a distinguished health and holiday spa town resort with the motto of Salubritas et Eruditio (”Health and Education”). It is famous for its annual esteemed horse-racing festival where the strongest and fastest horses trained in Britain and Ireland; compete with one another to bag the cash prize equivalent to the Grand National (England). The Cheltenham festival is held in the Cheltenham racecourse, in the village of Prestbury, with a capacity of 67,500 spectators. Cheltenham Gold Cup is the major highlight of the national hunt racing’s Cheltenham Festival, and is normally held in the month of March. This four-day Festival coincides with Saint Patrick’s Day (a national holiday of Ireland) thus ensuring a huge influx of Irish horse racing enthusiasts. Betting is an inter-woven aspect of Cheltenham festival, with gambling of millions of pounds in just four days. The environment of Cheltenham during this festival is thrilling with a humongous noise that the excited crowd creates throughout. The top jockeys of this renowned racing festival have been Ruby Walsh, Robert Thornton, Graham Lee, Mick Fitzgerald, Tony McCoy and Barry Geraghty.

All illustrious events suffer some criticism and so does this. The animal rights groups along with many other autonomous individuals have expressed their concerns about the high number of injuries to horses specially after the 2006 festival when 11 horses succumbed to pressure and tedious routines and died.

Nevertheless, the Cheltenham Festival continues to be the most famous event for horse racers and its devotees. For more details about its background and the 2010 Festival, visit www.cheltenham-races.com. It will acquaint you with all that you need to know about the Cheltenham Festival.