Cheltenham’s two-day Showcase meeting, which gets under way on Friday, signals the start of another season at Prestbury Park. After six long months, the sight of Cheltenham reappearing in the Racing Post entries pages feels like sliding open your woollens drawer and finding your favourite jumper waiting patiently for you.
It may not be your smartest piece of knitwear, or the one that your partner likes to see you wearing, but you’ve had it as long as you can remember. A few holes and pulled threads remind you of some of the scrapes you’ve been through together, but there are red wine and champagne stains too, from glasses clinked in friendship and raised in triumph.
The folk responsible for marketing the meeting came up with the idea of calling it the Showcase to remind us what the meeting is all about, and they’re not wrong, because it offers the chance to enjoy the racecourse and its facilities at a more leisurely canter than the mad gallop of March’s festival.
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Published on 22 October 2025inMoray Smith
Last updated 16:03, 22 October 2025