Iconic Cheltenham jockey Noel Fehily has sensationally claimed that he thinks the price of Cheltenham tickets should be even higher than they already are.
The six-time Cheltenham Festival winner is a retired Irish professional horse racing jockey who achieved huge success, including victories in the King George VI Chase and Champion Hurdle, despite his significant injuries. Throughout his career, he succeeded in winning the Tingle Creek Chase on Master Minded and clinching multiple victories at the Cheltenham Festival. He retired in 2019 after a successful career.
Cheltenham will return next week for a bumper week of racing action, where punters, trainers, fans, and the like will attend the famous racecourse once again.
The event's popularity has seen increased crowd sizes every year, and with that, prices of food, flights, drinks, and tickets have increased exponentially.
The cheapest option on Booking.com was £559, 15km from the racecourse, while the priciest, an apartment 1km away, cost over £14,000.
Tickets are also included in the price gouge and can range from £112 to £57, which isn't ideal for everyone
Tahmuras wins well for the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicate in the Unibet Tolworth Novices' Hurdle under @CobdenHarry 🏆🐎.#ITVRacing | @Sandownpark | @PFNicholls pic.twitter.com/uu3bFsnEpK
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) January 7, 2023
Not everyone agrees with the price of entry to the event, but Fehily thinks that the ticket should cost more so the crowds aren't as bad as they were over the last number of years.
“I think that the tickets should be more expensive," he said.
“When I’ve been there the past couple of years, it was overcrowded, I thought for a couple of days. I thought it was bordering on uncomfortable, never mind £115; it should be £215; it might keep a few of them at home!
“I thought the past couple of years it was bordering on being overcrowded, and that would be my biggest problem with the festival at the moment."
Fehily also believes that it's not different from any other premium sporting event and should be treated the same way you would if you wanted to go to the Olympics in Paris.
“They said tickets had been hard to sell last year, and you couldn’t stand! It was like a cattle market in some of the bars—to me, it was uncomfortable.”
“It’s the Cheltenham Festival; it’s the Olympics of our sport; everyone wants to go there, and I think that if you go to any big event, in terms of price, it’s not too different from any other sport.”
Fehily was speaking to DAZN Bet ahead of the Cheltenham Festival, which gets underway next Tuesday.
