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There’s always good quality racing at the April Meeting at Cheltenham Racecourse

Author: Roger Jackson, Posted: Saturday, 14th April 2018, 09:00

The April Meeting takes place on Wednesday 18th April and Thursday 19th April

There’s no such thing as an average meeting at Cheltenham.

They are all good, high quality sporting events and this month’s April Meeting will certainly be no exception.

It may not have the fanfare and razzmatazz of last month’s Festival, but all the big-name jockeys and trainers will be there competing for one of the most treasured prizes in jumps racing – a place in the winner’s enclosure at Prestbury Park.

And Ian Renton, who is the top man at Cheltenham Racecourse, is looking forward to this year’s meeting on Wednesday 18th April and Thursday 19th April as much as any of the previous 12 days of racing at Prestbury Park this season.

“I can always recall Phil Smith, the British Horseracing Authority’s head of handicapping, telling me that the April Meeting was his favourite meeting of the year,” said Renton.

“He said there’s always good quality racing but without all the fireworks of the Festival and Aintree.”

The final meeting of the season at Cheltenham is the Hunter Chase Evening meeting on Friday 4th May and assuming the final three days of scheduled racing at Prestbury Park go ahead – the Beast from the East surely can’t make another comeback! – that will complete a pretty impressive record for the racecourse.

“We haven’t lost a meeting since January 2013,” said Renton. “That’s pretty good going when you consider we race through December and January.

“We thought we were pretty unlucky with the weather in the build-up to this year’s Festival but as it turned out we were very lucky.”

The first race on both the 18th and 19th April is at 2.05pm.

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There’s always good quality racing at the April Meeting at Cheltenham Racecourse

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