Cheltenham revises New Year meeting

Cheltenham`s two-day New Year meeting on Monday and Tuesday has been revised again in the wake of the abandonment of Tripleprint day.

The changes, following the loss of the December 15 card because of frost, are to make the programme each day more balanced.

In addition to the changes announced on December 17, which saw an extra race introduced, a race switched and £20,000 put on the value of the second-day feature, Cheltenham is switching the £25,000-added Baring Bingham Handicap Chase.

The race, over three miles two and a half furlongs, is swapping with the four mile, one furlong Miles Gosling Handicap Chase, which has £17,500 in added prize money.

This means the Miles Gosling Handicap Chase will be the third race on the Monday and now closes on December 26.

The Baring Bingham Handicap Chase becomes the second contest on the Tuesday, with entries closing on December 27.

There have also been some changes to the running order each day.

As already announced, the Unicoin Chase, run on New Year`s Day, with identical race conditions to the Tripleprint Gold Cup and over the same distance of two miles, five furlongs, has had its prize money boosted from £30,000 to £50,000 from Cheltenham`s own resources.

The same Cheltenham card will feature an additional race backed by Tripleprint, the three-mile £20,000 Grade Two Tripleprint Novices` Hurdle.

Tripleprint is also supporting the £17,500-added Tripleprint Novices` Chase, over two miles and five furlongs, on New Year`s Day.

This race was originally scheduled under a different name on the first day of the New Year meeting but is being switched with the two mile and half a furlong novices` chase, which becomes the Unicoin Starter Homes Novices` Chase.