THE NOVEMBER MEET I NG 12-14 NOVEMBER 2021
FAMILY FUN DAY – Under 18s Go Free! Join us on Sunday of The November Meeting as Children’s TV Character Bing will be making personal appearances throughout the day as well as the chance to enjoy a whole host of free children’s activities including inflatable fun, face painting and meeting the animals.
T here’s an age-old adage that you can’t please everyone all the time. And while that might be true in other walks of life, The November Meeting might just be the exception to the rule. Firstly, the Jump season is well and truly underway by the time the gates open for these three days of unmissable racing from 12 to 14 November and that means top-class horses lining up in top-class races. And with the best track action comes an array of food and entertainment options off it, with free family fun in the Club and Tattersalls enclosures, to live music in the ever-popular Guinness Village and Centaur, to fine dining restaurants and world-class hospitality. It all begins with Countryside Day on the Friday, which, as the name suggests, is a race day with a local feel to it. There’s a real sense of community on course, and a favourite feature for many will be the iconic parade of the Cotswold Hunt horses and hounds in front of the
Jump racing fixture this side of Christmas. Some of the sport’s biggest names have graced this card at different stages of their careers, and once the novices have strutted their stuff in the respective early-season trials for the Arkle Trophy and the Triumph Hurdle, the Grade Three Paddy Power Gold Cup takes centre stage. Run over two-and-a-half miles and offering £130,000 in prize money, the Paddy Power Gold Cup is ferociously competitive and has, over the years, become one of the most popular Saturday handicaps of the entire season. Although a handicap in name, it generally takes a high-class performer to win the race and it has built up a reputation for producing champions as a consequence – demonstrated by a recent roll of honour that included graded performers, Al Ferof (2012) and Exotic Dancer (2006), as well as a subsequent Cheltenham Gold Cup and Ryanair Chase winner, Imperial Commander (2008). Last year’s
grandstand. In terms of the racing, the opening day of The November Meeting provides the first of just three opportunities all year to see horses take on the Cross Country Course at Cheltenham – unique across the UK’s 60 professional racecourses. The jewel in the crown of the Cross Country scene is the big race at the Cheltenham Festival, a spectacle that has been dominated by the ever- popular Tiger Roll in recent years. However, the first two Cross Country races of the season tend to offer the limelight to others. Take the veteran Kingswell Theatre, for instance, who at last year’s meeting defeated a field that included the two kings of the division, Tiger Roll and Easysland, and recorded a second victory in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase. Day two on the Saturday is Paddy Power Day and just a glance at the stellar seven-race card will tell you why many people regard it as the most significant
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