Cheltenham reopens on Friday after fixing its troublesome hole
Cheltenham opens its gates on Friday for the first card of the 2026-27 season, after a summer spent fixing the hole that stopped play on Trials day.
The course was due to welcome jump racing back nine months after ground staff found a significant hole in the racing surface in late January. The final race on that Trials day card was held up for 29 minutes while the problem was dealt with.
The Cheltenham Festival in March still went ahead as planned, six weeks later. The Jockey Club, which owns the track, then cut the rest of the 2025-26 campaign short. It cancelled the mid-April meeting and the hunter-chase card in May — a day for amateur riders — to leave room for remedial work and to let the ground recover The Guardian.
In all, Cheltenham lost its last three racedays of last season. The aim was simple. Gain maximum time to dig, drain and heal.
The work has been extensive. More than a kilometre of drainage has been replaced or upgraded around the track. Both the Old and New courses — Cheltenham’s two jump tracks, used at different meetings — were also scanned with ground-penetrating radar. That check showed no additional causes for concern.
Conditions for the return look autumnal and fair. Clerk of the course Jon Pullin, the official in charge of the track and the going, had the ground officially described as good. That is the middle of the scale: neither firm nor soft. It had been good, good-to-firm in places on Sunday before rain moved in.
Watering has now stopped because the forecast is unsettled. Cheltenham’s team will let the weather do the work this week.
For fans, this means a clean start. The roar will be back on the hill, the runners will turn into a home straight that has been rebuilt from below, and the long road to March begins again.
That road already has a date. Festival Trials Day, the final Cheltenham raceday before the Festival itself, is scheduled for Saturday 30 January 2027 The Jockey Club. Last season’s hole was found on that same Trials day card. This time the course will want the talking point to be the horses.
