Interestingly, while Manchester Racecourse existed in various locations in the vicinity of Manchester throughout its lifetime, all of them, while in Greater Manchester, were beyond the boundaries of the City of Manchester. The first record race meeting in the locality took place at Kersal Moor in Salford, to the northwest of Manchester, in 1681, although the meeting was briefly transferred to Barlow Moor, to the southwest of the city centre, between 1697 and 1701.

In 1847, the lease on Kersal Moor expired and was not renewed and the Manchester Racecourse Committee created a new course at nearby Castle Irwell, on land rented, on a 20-year lease, from John Fitzgerald, former Member of Parliament for Seaford, East Sussex. The first meeting at Castle Irwell to place on May 26, 1847 and the course proved hugely popular for the duration of the lease. Even so, John Purcell Fitzgerald, son of the original lessor, refused to renew the lease ‘for just and Christian reasons’ when it expired, leaving the Committee to find yet another new venue.

The site they chose was at New Barns, Weaste, next to Salford Quay, where the racing first took place on New Year’s Eve, 1867 and continued until 1901. The Manchester November Handicap, which, nowadays, is run at Doncaster, minus the ‘Manchester’ tag, was inaugurated in 1876. The land at New Barns was subsequently acquired by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, prompting a return to Castle Irwell, on land which the Committee now owned outright, having purchased it from the executors of John Purcell Fitzgerald, who died in 1879.

The new, purpose-built racecourse staged its first meeting in 1902 and remained popular until after World War II, when attendances began to decline. In 1961, the old, rot-infested Club Stand was demolished as replaced by a fully cantilevered reinforced concrete version but, even so, two years later, property developers made the Committee an offer it couldn’t refuse. Manchester Racecourse staged its final meeting on November 9, 1963.

The eyes of the horse racing world will be on the United Kingdom in March as the prestigious 2025 Cheltenham Festival is staged.

The prestigious meeting is one of the busiest betting events of the year, with sportsbooks worldwide offering odds on National Hunt racing’s biggest occasion.

That point is evidenced to perfection in emerging betting jurisdictions such as the Middle East, where bookmakers have been offering odds on the meeting for several months.

Arab punters love indulging in horse racing betting and many of them fuel their passion for the Sport of Kings during the four-day extravaganza.

Those bettors will be in their element from March 11-14, as the top National Hunt horses in training strive to add their name to the Cheltenham Festival roll of honour.

If you are planning to attend or will be watching on television, read on as we provide a handy guide to enjoying the showpiece piece event at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Cheltenham Festival 2025 – Schedule

Day 1 – Tuesday, March 11 – Champion Day

• 1.20 pm – The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1) – 2m
• 2.00 pm – The My Pension Expert Arkle Novices’ Chase (Grade 1) – 2m
• 2.40 pm – The Ultima Handicap Chase (Premier Handicap) – 3m 1f
• 3.20 pm – The Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1) – 2m 4f
• 4.00 pm – The Unibet Champion Hurdle (Grade 1) – 2m
• 4.40 pm – The Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Race (Premier Handicap) – 2m
• 5.20 pm – The National Hunt Novices’ Chase (Novices’ Steeple Chase) (Novices’ Handicap) – 3m 6f

Day 2 – Wednesday, March 12 – Style Wednesday

• 1.20 pm – The Turners Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1) – 2m 5f
• 2.00 pm – The Brown Advisory Novices’ Steeple Chase (Grade 1) – 3m
• 2.40 pm – The Coral Cup Hurdle (A Handicap Hurdle Race) (Premier Handicap) – 2m 5f
• 3.20 pm – The Glenfarclas Cross Country Steeple Chase – 3m 5½f
• 4.00 pm – The BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase (Grade 1) – 2m
• 4.40 pm – The Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Steeple Chase Challenge Cup (Premier Handicap) – 2m
• 5.20 pm – The Weatherbys Champion Bumper (A Standard Open NH Flat Race) (Grade 1) – 2m

Day 3 – Thursday, March 13 – St Patrick’s Thursday

• 1.20 pm – The Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2) – 2m 1f
• 2.00 pm – The Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase – 2m 4f
• 2.40 pm – The Pertemps Network Final (A Handicap Hurdle Race) (Listed) (Premier Handicap) – 3m
• 3.20 pm – The Ryanair Steeple Chase (Grade 1) – 2m 4f
• 4.00 pm – The Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1) – 3m
• 4.40 pm – The TrustATrader Plate (A Handicap Steeple Chase) (Premier Handicap) – 2m 4f
• 5.20 pm – The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Handicap Steeple Chase (0-145) – 3m 2f

Day 4 – Friday, March 14 – Gold Cup Day

• 1.20 pm – The JCB Triumph Hurdle (Grade 1) – 2m
• 2.00 pm – The William Hill County Handicap Hurdle Race (Premier Handicap) – 2m
• 2.40 pm – The Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Steeple Chase (Grade 2) – 2m 4f
• 3.20 pm – The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1) – 3m
• 4.00 pm – The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Steeple Chase (Grade 1) – 3m 2f
• 4.40 pm – The St. James’s Place Festival Hunters Chase – 3m 2f
• 5.20 pm – Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle (0-145) – 2m 4f

Cheltenham Festival 2025 – Racecourse Guide

Tickets for each of the three spacious enclosures at the Cheltenham Festival can be purchased online via the racecourse’s official website.

Club and Tattersalls offer a spectacular view of the action on the course, while Best Mate provides a head-on view down the home straight.

Cheltenham boasts an excellent transport infrastructure, making it easy to travel to the racecourse. There are also plenty of parking options if you are planning to drive.

There are a ton of hospitality options available at the racecourse designed to suit all budgets. From fast food to world-class restaurants, Cheltenham has it all.

Away from the thrill of horse racing and betting, the four-day meeting also offers visitors the chance to watch a wide range of live music across a variety of zones.

The Guinness Village is a great place to listen to Irish-themed music, while the Tattersalls Sales Arena is the best spot to experience classic hits under cover.

If you would rather enjoy relaxing acoustic tunes, The Centaur offers a more relaxing way to wind down after a busy day at the races.

For punters who are planning to watch the Festival on television, ITV Sport and Racing TV are offering extensive coverage across television and streaming platforms.

Mainland Britain is home to a total of 59 racecourses, which are spread, more or less, throughout the length and breadth of the country. The most northerly of them, at a latitude of 56.42°, is Perth Racecourse, which is situated in Scone Palace Park, north of the city of Perth in central Scotland, on the banks of the River Tay. Perth Racecourse exclusively stages National Hunt racing, between April and September, with the three-day Perth Festival, in late April, being the seasonal highlight.

At the other end of mainland Britain, approximately 500 miles from Perth, at a latitude of 50.54°, Newton Abbot Racecourse, on the northern edge of the market town of the same name in South Devon, has the distinction of being the most southerly horse racing venue in the country. Like Perth, Newton Abbot is a summer jumps course, whose season lasts from April until October.

East of the International Reference Meridian (IRM), at a longitude of 1.73°, Great Yarmouth Racecourse, just north of the seaside resort town on the coast of Norfolk, East Anglia, is the most easterly racecourse in the country. Unlike Perth and Newton Abbot, Great Yarmouth is a Flat-only course but, like them, has a season designed primarily for holidaymakers and tourists, between April and October. The seasonal highlight is the three-day Eastern Festival, which features the John Musker Fillies’ Stakes, in September.

The most westerly racecourse on mainland Britain is a close call between two dual-purpose courses, Ayr, on the southwest coast of Scotland, and Ffos Las, in the former mining village of Trimsaran in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. Ayr, with a longitude of -4.62°, is marginally more westerly than Ffos Las, which has a longitude of -4.24°. Billed as ‘Scotland’s Premier Racecourse’, Ayr is best known for the Scottish Grand National and the Ayr Gold Cup.

In short, the country that has the most racecourses is Australia. The ‘Land Down Under’ is home to the better part of 400 racecourses, spread throughout all six states and two territories. Australian racecourses are variously classified as ‘metropolitan’, ‘provincial’ and ‘country’, according to their location and the quality of the racing staged. Famous metropolitan racecourses include Flemington, in Melbourne, Victoria, which is the venue for ‘the race that stops a nation’, the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield, also in Melbourne, Royal Randwick and Rosehill, in the eastern and western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales and Morphettville in Adelaide, South Australia.

Elsewhere, the United States of America, which is 127% bigger than Australia, by area, but 1,291% more populous, according to Worldata.info, is home to over 300 racecourses. The three most famous are probably Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, Pimlico in Maryland, Baltimore and Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, which respectively stage the three ‘Triple Crown’ races, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

In Europe, thoroughbred horse racing in France takes place on 140 different racecourses. Most of the important races concentrated on those in, and around, Paris, namely Longchamp, home of the most valuable race in Europe, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in the Bois de Boulogne, nearby Saint-Cloud and Chantilly, in Oise, 30 miles or north of the city centre. That said, Hippodrome Deauville-La Touques, on the coast of Normandy, in northern France, hosts half a dozen Group 1 races each year and is the only racecourse outside the capital to stage races at the highest level.

Closer to home, in the British Isles, there are 59 racecourses on the British mainland – 51 in England, five in Scotland and three in Wales – two in Northern Ireland and 25 in the Republic of Ireland. In fact, the Republic of Ireland has one racecourse for every 200,000 inhabitants, approximately, which is the highest number per capita of any country.