The supplementary fee for the Gold Cup is set at £17,500, with the Champion Hurdle costing £15,000 (€23,800), the Champion Chase £12,500 (€19,900) and the Stayers' Hurdle £7,000 (€11,000).

The top events at the Festival have also seen increases in prize money with the Gold Cup now being a £350,000 (€557,000) race, the Champion Hurdle £300,000 (€478,000), while the Champion Chase now carries a purse of £250,000 (€398,000).

Another event at the National Hunt Festival has also been changed with the William Hill National Hunt Handicap Chase now being a Grade Three contest.

A new race, the £50,000 (€79,600) DBS Future Champions Novices' Chase, will join the card for the December meeting. The race will be restricted to horses aged five and above who were graduates of the store section of the Doncaster Spring Sale in 2000.

Overall prize money at the Cotswold track for the season will top the £4m (€6.3m) mark for the first time.

There will be £4,263,000 (€6,793,059) in added and guaranteed prize money available during the 2002/3 campaign which gets underway on October 29 and 30.

Cheltenham also guarantee that no race over hurdles or fences for professional riders will be worth less than £15,000 (€23,800) between November and April.

Edward Gillespie, managing director at Cheltenham said: "A 76% increase in prize money over five years emphasises Cheltenham's commitment to reward the connections of runners at the home of National Hunt racing.

"This applies to races across the board - from a £50,000 rise in the value of the Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup to the fact that every race over obstacles from November to April will now have a minimum value of £15,000 (€23,800)."