Cheltenham to race in Easter week

The festival will start the day after Easter Monday

Cheltenham have confirmed that the rescheduled three-day National Hunt festival will start on 17 April.

The meeting should have been taking place this week but was postponed when the course failed racing guidelines imposed because of foot-and-mouth.

Some critics have called for the festival to be scrapped altogether in the light of the outbreak.

We are convinced we can safely conduct a successful race meeting

  Edward Gillespie

But Cheltenham director Edward Gillespie insisted it was safe for the jump season's showpiece to go ahead on the new dates.

"We at Cheltenham are only too conscious of the continuing foot-and-mouth crisis and the effect this is having on so many of our customers.

"However, there is a balance to be struck.

"We are convinced we can safely conduct a successful race meeting.

Newmarket clash

"We have therefore set dates so that the preparation of the horses and all the arrangements for the meeting can resume."

But he warned the meeting could yet be abandoned if horseracing is suspended again or a new case puts the racecourse inside an infected area.

Tickets for the postponed festival will be valid for the same days of the week.

Cheltenham will write to all ticket holders outlining arrangements, which include a full refund if they cannot attend.

The new dates mean that the meeting will not clash with the Punchestown Festival, should the Irish authorities allow it to go ahead.

However, it will coincide with the prestigious Craven meeting at Newmarket which features the first Classic trials of the season.