Racing fans will be thrilled to hear that the first six races at Cheltenham Festival will be broadcast live on ITV for the first time in 2021.
With The Festival 2021 at Cheltenham Racecourse set to take place behind closed doors, rights manager Racecourse Media Group has given ITV one-off permission to broadcast the first six of seven of the daily races.
This will be the first time all six daily main races of the four-day event — which runs from Tuesday 16 March to Friday 19 March 2021 — will be shown live on ITV. The broadcaster usually only shows five of the daily races.
This change means that the gap between each race will be reduced from 40 minutes to 35 minutes, allowing ITV to fit six races into the programme.
Coverage starts from 1pm and runs until 4.30pm, which means that the opening contest will be brought forward to a new provisional time of 1.20pm and the card’s showpiece event — including the Gold Cup — will be run at 3.05pm.
Televised action from The Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse will be live on ITV and RacingTV from 1.20pm on Tuesday 16 March 2021.
For more information, see The Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse.
