On the surface it is all horses and booze - but behind the facade there are some eye-watering numbers at the Cheltenham Festival .

The action gets underway on Tuesday at the showpiece horse-racing event on the calendar - which includes the famous Gold Cup - but what goes on behind the scenes.

For example there is 105,000 punters using nearby Cheltenham Spa train station and an incredible eight TONNES of potato eaten across the four days.

Here is the Cheltenham Festival by numbers...

Riders gallop around onto the home straight at Cheltenham (
Image:
Getty)
£2,200,000 withdrawn from the cash machines at last year’s Festival (
Image:
PA Wire)

£4,305,000 record amount of prize money on offer at this week’s Festival

£2,200,000 money withdrawn from the cash machines at last year’s Festival

£575,000 prize money available for the Gold Cup

105,000 people using Cheltenham Spa train station over the four days of racing

70,000 maximum capacity on Gold Cup day

Cheltenham Spa Station will be very busy this week (
Image:
PA)

65,000 average attendance over four days

40,000 hospitality guests served

21,120 distance in feet run during the National Hunt Chase

12,320 yards of running rails surrounding the track

5,936 staff employed over the the four days

1934 the year Golden Miller became the first horse to win both the Gold Cup and the Grand National in a single season

Jockey Bryan Cooper kisses the Gold Cup after guiding Don Cossack to glory last year (
Image:
PA)
£575,000 prize money available for the Gold Cup (
Image:
Getty Images Europe)
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800 members of the press accredited each year

350 chefs on site each day

240 private boxes

£45,000,000 cost of the redevelopment of the racecourse

30 extra flights put on by Ryanair on the Dublin to Birmingham route during the Festival

22 fences jumped during the Gold Cup

A groundsman attempts to tackle a streaker (
Image:
Alan Crowhurst/Getty)

9 tons of potatoes consumed

8 most wins at the Festival by a trainer — Willie Mullins — in a single year (2015)

7 most wins at the Festival by a jockey — Ruby Walsh — in a single year (2009 & 2016)

6 most consecutive wins in any Festival race — Quevega in the Mares’ Hurdle 2009-14

2 shortest distance raced in miles

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