Well, irishracing.com have taken a closer look at the famous finishing climb at Cheltenham Racecourse and compared the incline to other racecourses across Britain and Ireland to see how it stacks up.
It turns out the climb from the two furlong marker at Cheltenham to the winning post sees the horses climb a total of 11.48 metres in elevation. As suspected it is a very stiff finish for the competitors, but let’s look at how it compares to other racecourses with uphill finishes.
Naas is an obvious racecourse to compare Cheltenham to as it is also left-handed and is often used by Irish trainers to prepare their horses for the upcoming test at Cheltenham Festival. Horses racing at Naas climb 5.73 metres over the final two furlongs of their races which indicates it is indeed similar to Cheltenham, but not nearly as steep an incline.
Leopardstown is another Irish racecourse with an uphill finish and most of the Irish-trained Cheltenham contenders will have raced there earlier in the season. The final quarter of a mile at Leopardstown rises by 6.63 metres which, like Naas, is only half as steep as at Cheltenham.
Galway Racecourse in the west of Ireland has a stiff climb from the final two fences in the dip to the winning post, 13.7 metres to be exact, but the climb over the final two furlongs is only 6.5 metres as the terrain flattens out in the home straight.
Other racecourses with steep inclines over the final two furlongs to the winning post are Sandown Park in Surrey (10.24 metres), Carlisle in the north of England (10.18 metres) and over in Ireland at Tramore in Co. Wexford (9.19 metres) and Downpatrick in Northern Ireland (10.71 metres).
Epsom Racecourse is renowned for its undulating circuit, but the horses are actually running downhill in the home straight and the final quarter of a mile to the winning post sees the elevation drop by 5.78 metres.
Overall there are plenty of racecourses in both Britain and Ireland with stiff uphill finishes to their races, but none have quite as severe an incline as we will see at the Cheltenham Festival next week.
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