The new grandstand at Cheltenham racecourse is to be opened next month, two months earlier than planned. The five-and-a half-storey construction is to be delivered within its original budget of £45m and while such things cannot be absolutely certain until it has been thoroughly used by thousands of racegoers, it looks likely to add to the enormous goodwill from which the venue already benefits.
The impressive stand can soak up 6,500 people, more than four times the number who used the decrepit collection of buildings previously on the spot, and offers them, in addition to modern standards of comfort, glorious 360 degree views of Gloucestershire countryside as well as the famous track itself. Course officials see it as a means of improving the spectator experience and will not seek to raise Cheltenham’s overall capacity of around 70,000.
The development extends behind the new stand, where balconies and a sweeping crescent walkway offer views of the paddock and winner’s enclosure. Welcoming back Festival winners is a treasured part of the Cheltenham experience and thousands more people will now be able to join in. In the words of Ian Renton, who manages the course for the Jockey Club, the area is now “a second amphitheatre” to match the track itself.
Congestion will surely remain a feature of Cheltenham’s biggest days but the new facilities should help, partly by making good use of previously dead space. The big screen by the paddock will now have a second screen on its reverse for those using the newly created plaza area behind it.
Racing professionals should also appreciate the changes. In addition to a bar named after the hugely popular hurdler Big Buck’s, the stand contains a facility for owners and trainers which officials hope will prove the best of its kind in Britain, and a significant upgrade on the handful of steps plus a remote bar that was on offer before.
Even beaten trainers and jockeys will feel the benefit. The ‘paddock of doom’, where unplaced horses go immediately after a race, has been astroturfed, meaning no squelching around in a quagmire while trying to come up with excuses.
Cheltenham now promises “significantly improved” disabled access, together with a dedicated viewing space on the first floor between the two grandstands.
Environmental concerns have been taken into account during construction, a ground source heat pump now being used to provide ground-floor heating in the new stand. The most recent Festival was the first at which the track recycled more than it threw away, officials report, and there is immense pride that the track won ‘environmental business of the year’ at the recent Gloucestershire Business awards.
Decoration and landscaping work continues, with the first fixtures of the new season just over a fortnight away, workers on site putting in double-shifts and pushing on through each weekend. Parts of the new stand will be used for the racedays this month. The Princess Royal is expected to carry out the formal opening on 13 November.
“It is a huge credit to our team at Cheltenham, together with our contractors Kier, and architects Roberts Limbrick, that we have been able to continue with a complete racing programme whilst undertaking a development on this scale,” Renton said. “The feedback on those parts of the redevelopment that we have opened to date has been incredibly positive and I am sure that those who experience all that the new stand has to offer over the coming months will agree that this is a stand of which Cheltenham and its racegoers can be really proud.”
