Mug's game: Poor forecast on Costa del Cheltenham after stormy opening day

I begin to congratulate myself on my perspicacity. Enda, you old shrewdie! How could the reigning champion have started at such bizarrely long odds indeed? You knew!

IN A ROUGH STATE: State Man ridden by Paul Townend falls at the last hurdle on day one of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire

An increasingly popular place for fans of the Cheltenham festival to be this week, according to an article the other day, is… Benidorm. Not Cheltenham. Benidorm.

Cheltenham has become too big, too expensive, too everything; Benidorm has nice weather, cheap pints, ease of ingress and egress and no issues with parking. In short, no rip-off.