Punters ready for War of Attrition with bookies

BUM steers and beaten dockets — bad memories of Ballybrit evaporated in the slipstream of the jet that hurtled us towards the Cotswolds.

Boarding the charter plane that would carry us to Cheltenham, packed with the monied and the manicured, and mostly male, the talk was all of War of Attrition, ripe for today's Arkle Chase.

Trilby-ed and topped off with a jaunty feather, Mick Staunton from Turner's Cross, Cork, looked more the part than most. Not surprising given he's one year off his silver anniversary of Cheltenham trips.