Has Cheltenham festival lost its shine five years on from that infamous Covid meeting?

Five years on from a Cheltenham festival that unfolded in Covid's shadow in front of packed stands that would soon become emblematic of the country's hesitant stumble into lockdown, one of Britain's most popular sporting events once again finds itself at a crossroads, after sharp declines in attendance in the last two years.

- Greg Wood

It is not a lingering hangover from the pandemic, or the result of racegoers losing the festival habit in 2021, when the meeting was staged behind closed doors. Far from it. The first post-Covid festival with full attendance in 2022 attracted record crowds throughout the week to post a new high for the four days of nearly 281,000 racegoers.

But for a significant number of those spectators, there was something about the festival in 2022 that persuaded them not to repeat the experience. While next Friday's card - with the Cheltenham Gold Cup, steeplechasing's championship event, as the centrepiece - has maintained its sell-out status, attendance for the first three days of the meeting, from Tuesday to Thursday, has dropped 22% in two years since the 2022 peak. Over the four days as a whole, the crowds are down by 18%.

The cost-of-living crisis, which started to bite from mid-2022, has no doubt played a part. Tickets for the Club enclosure, with the best views of the finish, cost £100 on the first three days and £118 on Gold Cup day.