There’s no other week of racing spoken about as much as the Cheltenham Festival, and even in the summer, you can find things being linked to Cheltenham and the impacts of it.

But this week, we had direct news about the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, and it was news that I see as a big positive, and I think most others will, too.

News around the future of the two races came out, a change in status for both of them and a change for the better, not just for these two races but also for other races at the meeting too.

The Cheltenham Festival is about more than just racing, with a long list of things to do in Cheltenham, but of course, without the racing, there is no festival.

Turners Novice Chase Becomes a Handicap

The change that will have the biggest impact on the meeting, without a doubt, is the move to change the Turners Novice Chase from a Grade One contest into a handicap.

Firstly, the race itself this brings back a novice handicap at the festival, which we lost during the previous changes, and that can only be a positive. We talk a lot about field sizes, and now, this is a race that should get either a maximum field or close to one every year.

But of course, as anyone who knows the Cheltenham schedule will be aware, this is a race that affects many others on the week.

A Grade One for novice chasers over 2m4f also impacts on the 2m Arkle Chase plus the 3m Brown Advisory Chase. Both have suffered and seen some of their smallest fields ever recorded since the Turners were introduced.

Every year, we see trainers debating whether to go for one race or the other for months before we reach March, sometimes deciding where to run simply because of what other horses they have in their stable.

But all of that should come to an end now, and field sizes should improve, antepost betting for punters should be easier, as horses have fewer options and, on the track, it should all lead to better quality, less diluted racing.

Yes, there will be a small number of genuine 2m4f horses that have to either step down in trip or go up in trip when they don’t want to, but the hurdlers have had to do that for decades with no race in between the Champion Hurdle and Stayers Hurdle.

But on the whole, this should be a massive positive for the Cheltenham Festival.

Cross Country Chase Also Becomes Handicap

The second change announced this week was a switch in direction for the Cross Country Chase. Not as big and one that won’t impact other races at the festival, but it’s still one that I like because of how it now sits within the full-season schedule.

Obviously, the Cross Country races are not for everyone, but for those that do like them, the schedule is a little strange.

First up, we have races earlier in the season at Cheltenham, which are all handicaps, but then the main race at the festival was a graded race. That made it really difficult for trainers to map a plan and punters to put together any kind of form lines.

There is a negative with this switch, I think we’ll no longer see horses coming here ahead of running in the Grand National, had this been a handicap, then we’d never have seen Tiger Roll completing his famous Cross Country/Grand National double.

But while we will lose some of the top-quality runners, especially those heading to the Grand National, we should get a far more competitive race and a race where, genuinely, anyone could win.

For years now, the Cross Country has had double-figure runners, but only three or four with any kind of genuine chance to win the race. I think the race field will remain the same, but competitiveness will go up a lot, and more runners will have a chance to win it.

This should also help punters, who can piece together form lines and look at handicap marks of those heading for the race.

More Cheltenham Changes to Come

Word on the street is that there’s more to come in terms of changes to the Cheltenham Festival, with announcements coming soon.

These two changes have been described as part of the plan, and the final 2025 Cheltenham Festival schedule is still being finalised.

I’m very interested to see what comes next because I think the two moves already, in particular the Turners, show that Cheltenham is listening to concerns, from both racing fans and professionals.

The festival remains the best week of racing in the UK and Ireland, but there are threats to it, with field sizes being the biggest. The moves we’ve seen this week go some way to moving away from those threats and getting us back to the traditional sights of full fields for almost every Cheltenham race.