THE Grade 1 Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle will no longer be run on day one of the Cheltenham Festival and has been switched to a Thursday slot - meaning a change from the old course to the new course.

The Jockey Club announced yesterday that the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase will instead move to the sixth race on day one at the Festival, while the Mares’ Hurdle is now race three on the Thursday.

Jon Pullin, head of racing at The Jockey Club and clerk of the course at Cheltenham, suggested that the mares-only event “was always somewhat in the shadow of the Unibet Champion Hurdle” when taking place right alongside the premier two-mile hurdling contest.

He said: “By moving to St Patrick’s Thursday, we feel the race will receive more attention and the coverage a race of its status merits.”

Maximum field sizes have also been shrunk for three races at the Festival. The two-mile-five-furlong old course hurdle start will be reduced from 26 to 24 for handicaps and from 24 to 22 for novice races, impacting the Coral Cup.

The maximum field size for the two-mile-one-furlong hurdle start on the new course will be reduced from 26 to 24 for handicaps and 24 to 22 for novice contests - a move that has implications for the William Hill County Hurdle. Likewise, the Weatherbys Champion Bumper will be reduced from 24 to 22. After plenty of frustration over false starts at the Festival in recent years, tweaks have also been made to starting positions and rail alignments in a bid to reduce the number of unsuccessful starts.

Smoother starts

“The decision has been made to remove the three-mile-half-a-furlong chase start on the old course due to the approach to the starting tape being on the hurdle course and adjacent to the penultimate chase fence. This meant that there was little room to activate the start and get the full field back on the chase track ready to jump the first fence,” said Pullin.

The three-mile-one-furlong start will now be used for races like the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, and, as a result of this change, runners in these races will face an extra fence as they will jump the second last fence as the first.

Pullin added: “The removal of the three-mile-two-furlong start on the new course is also due to similar reasons. This start is located on the home straight, but with more space available at the three-mile-two-and-a-half-furlong start, we feel using that in place of the three-mile-two-furlong start will improve the approach to the tapes without any more fences needing to be jumped.”

This will now be the new starting point for the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase.