Cheltenham Festival will see an increase in prize money and changes in races.

UK.- The Jockey Club has announced several changes for Cheltenham Festival 2025. The event, to be held from March 11 to 14, will have more prize money and new race formats.

Prize money will increase to £4.93m (€5.91m). Meanwhile, the Turners Novices’ Chase will be replaced by a 2.5-mile Grade Two limited novice handicap and the National Hunt Chase will become a novice handicap chase for horses rated 0-145. The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase will go back to handicap status, and the penalty structure for the Ryanair Mares’ Novices Hurdle has been ditched. 

Other changes include a guaranteed place to all winners of series qualifiers in the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle (if they meet the weights brackets at the declaration stage), while the number of qualifying runs for non-novice handicaps has been expanded to four for chases and five for hurdles. 

The Jockey Club said the changes were intended to create a “more competitive racing and a better experience and value for all visitors to the Home of Jump Racing.” The changes come after attendance fell this year. 

Some blamed this year’s drop in attendance on ticket prices. As such, prices have been frozen for 2025, and discounts will be available for people attending in larger groups or for multiple days. The Jockey Club added that course-side drinking restrictions will be partially lifted in the Tattersalls and Best Mate enclosures, and improvements are being made for car and coach parking.

UK horse racing betting: ex-police officer sentenced over scam 

A former British policeman has been sentenced to prison for six years for his involvement in a horse racing betting syndicate scam. Michael Stanley, from Kent, was found guilty on several charges of fraud.

Appearing at Maidstone Crown Court, the former police officer admitted to running a racing syndicate named Layzey, which was found to have defrauded thousands of people out of at least £44.2m. The syndicate used a Ponzi-style tactic disguised as a lay betting horse racing scheme from 2013 to February 2019. Layzey members would invest funds, purportedly for collective gambling, but Stanley would use the new investments to pay earlier members.

He lied about the amount of successful bets, inflated the value of investments, and transferred money to his own accounts. The scheme had up to 6,000 members at one point, including friends and family of Stanley himself.