False start for punters... but spirits remain high

HARDY ANNUALS were in plentiful supply at Cheltenham yesterday as the racing and betting extravaganza got under way for 2008. Not in the flower beds, mind, but among the throng of national hunt fans who gathered for their annual splurge.

Hardy they had to be: laughing off Monday’s delayed, diverted and cancelled flights, they arrived at the racecourse yesterday refreshed, fed and watered, and were then met with rain, wind and biting, biting cold.

Annuals too, with a sizeable majority of the estimated 16,000 Irish punters in attendance back for more after previous trouncings, and the occasional windfall, from years gone by.