Punter FURY as Cheltenham confirm price of a pint at March’s Festival – £1.50 MORE than snooker fans paid at same venue

RACING punters have reacted with fury after Cheltenham confirmed a pint will cost £7.50 at the Festival – £1.50 MORE than snooker fans paid at the same venue.

A pint of Guinness at last week’s World Grand Prix snooker event hosted by the racecourse cost £6.

GettyPunters will pay £7.50 a pint at March’s Cheltenham Festival[/caption]

But racing punters will have to cough up £7.50 for a drop of the black stuff during the four-day Festival in March.

That is a 50p increase on last year – but the same as what a pint cost at a race meeting last October.

Cheltenham chiefs said the difference in cost was down to the size of the event.

With the attendance at the Festival capped to a daily limit of 68,5000 this year, they said they had to charge more to cover larger catering costs.

A Jockey Club spokesperson is quoted in the Racing Post as saying: “There are a lot more set-up costs with a major UK sporting event compared to a smaller and more locally resourced event.

“These costs are reflective of that. At the Jockey Club, any profits are reinvested into all aspects of British horseracing.”

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At last year’s Festival, a pint of Carling cost £6.90 while a pint of Aspalls Suffold Cyder was £7.

One punter posted a photo of a sorry-looking Irish coffee they said had cost them £14.10.

Another snap that went viral on social media showed a punter holding a £14 double gin and tonic.

Some 260,000 pints of Guinness were sunk during last year’s Festival, the jewel in the crown of the National Hunt season.

Describing the difference in cost for the same pint, one punter said racing fans were being ‘blatantly being ripped off’.

Another said: “It’s a joke, been going years for the week, (they’re) pricing proper racegoers out of it for the young day-trippers.”

Meanwhile, a Cheltenham councillor has called for paint that repels wee to be used on roads leading to the racecourse during the week.

Chemicals in the paint mean wee will ‘splash back’ on those who urinate in public.

Max Wilkinson said: “Public urination at any time is disgusting.

“Last year, I saw a line of men brazenly weeing against a wall near the town centre, while hundreds of people sat in traffic queues just yards away – they were totally shameless.

“We shouldn’t have to put up with this anymore.

“I’m sure the prospect of wet trousers will make people think twice, even if they think they won’t get caught and fined.”

Cheltenham Festival will run from Tuesday, March 14 to Friday, March 17.

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