AND so things return to normality. For the first two days of the festival the bookies here took a dreadful hammering — losses were being calculated upwards by the million as each race passed – and by the end of trading on Wednesday conservative estimates of the bookies’ losses across the industry were being estimated at about £25m.

Big Buck’s gave Paul Nicholls his first victory in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Rambling Minster jumped his way into the John Smith’s Grand National picture with a splendid staying performance under trainer Keith Reveley’s son James in the Blue Square Gold Cup Chase at Haydock.