Over 200,000 racegoers will pour through the gates of Cheltenham Racecourse in March as the 2017 festival gets underway. The Festival starts on March 14th and runs through the 17th.

It’s expected that as much as £600 million will swap hands over the course of the four-day festival, while the combined prize fund will top the £4 million mark. The Festival at Cheltenham will see a record price money total of £4,305,000 over the four days.

Ian Renton, Regional Director at The Jockey Club, commented by saying, “I am delighted to announce record prize money of over £4.3 million for The Festival, which represents an increase of more than 10% since 2015.”

“For 2017, the major increases have gone to the novice chases, with the Racing Post Arkle and the RSA being run at £175,000 and the JLT Novices’ Chase at £150,000.”

“We would like to thank all our sponsors who have assisted us in improving prize money for The Festival and look forward to four great days of racing in March.”