Hallowed turf of Cheltenham braces for Irish invasion

AS the exodus of more than 7,000 racing faithful begins from ports and airports across the country today, racing festival staff in Cheltenham are gearing up for a bumper three-day festival.

Racecourse caterers will employ 3,000 staff to serve 27,000 meals, 14,000 bottles of champagne, 20,000 bottles of wine and 250,000 pints of draught beer, lager and Guinness over the three-day event.

And if any of the many Irish hopefuls like Limestone Lad, Beef or Salmon and Moscow Flyer come up trumps, they'll sell a lot, lot more.

Approximately 7,000 racegoers travel from Ireland each year and it is estimated up to 20% of the entire crowd is Irish, many already living in Britain.

The official estimate of total on-course betting turnover during the festival is £40m an average of more than £2m per race on the course alone.

That doesn't take into account the amount of money punters have already bet at home or the money they'll wager in betting offices outside the course.

But picking winners won't be easy. There are 411 runners in the 20 races at the festival. Of those, over 80 are from Ireland, 10 from France and two from America.

C4 will provide 16 hours of coverage. RTÉ will be among 25 television and documentary crews and representatives from over 160 radio stations on site.

In 2002, there were five Irish-trained winners with Like A Butterfly getting the Irish off to a terrific start by winning the first race, the Gerrard Wealth Management Supreme Novices' Hurdle.

Sreland has long been associated with some of the most successful riders with seven of Britain's top 10 jockeys hail from Ireland Tony McCoy, Tony Dobbin, Mick Fitzgerald, Graham Lee, Ruby Walsh, Barry Fenton and Jim Culloty.

Factfile: 180,000 race-goers will visit the course over the three day festival; 7,000 Irish followers will travel to the event; 14,000 bottles of champagne will be uncorked.

In excess of stg£2 million will be bet on each race, totalling an average stg£40 million over the festival