WHINSTONE BOY added to his considerable gains in the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park two weeks earlier, with another terrific display in the Kilcash Chase at Clonmel yesterday.

HERE’S one for your next pub quiz: what do Archbishop Tutu, The Edge, Salman Rushdie, Al Pacino, Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Alex Ferguson have in common?

LAST Saturday bookmakers Paddy Power and Boylesports did something which barely got a mention in the press, but surely merited a lot more in the way of publicity.

THOMAS O’LEARY produced an extraordinary training performance to win back-to back Ellen Construction Thyestes Handicap Chases with Preists Leap at Gowran Park yesterday.

RUBY WALSH, fresh from his comeback success on Cornish Sett at Newbury on Saturday, heads the panel for the Cashmans Bookmakers Cheltenham Preview at the Silversprings Hotel in Cork tonight at 8pm.

HENRIETTA Knight and Terry Biddlecombe, the team responsible for four in-a-row Gold Cup seeking Best Mate at Cheltenham this day fortnight, head an all-star cast for the Cashmans Bookmakers Cheltenham Preview next Tuesday night.

GALWAY’S meeting at Ballybrit on Monday week, September 8, promises to be a red letter day in more ways than one.

THE WAITING is nearly over, the preparations are almost complete and, it seems, an entire nation is holding its breath for the start of the 2003 Cheltenham Festival tomorrow.