Sure as a pre-election budget, Moscow Flyer once again lined the pockets of his thousands of fans, writes Frank McNally at Cheltenham
Never mind Gordon Brown. For punters at Cheltenham yesterday, the really big decision affecting the pound in your pocket rested with Moscow Flyer.
If other horses were bankers, he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Thankfully, he didn't disappoint.
Sure as a pre-election budget, he again lined the pockets of his thousands of fans and ensured that prudent backers will go into the third day of the festival with a surplus. But his victory in the Queen Mother Champion Chase had more than mere money riding on it.
As Zara Phillips presented the trophy named after her great-grandmother, she must have been painfully aware that the real royalty in the winners' enclosure had four legs. "The greatest Irish chaser since Arkle," announced John O'Donoghue, placing the long-disputed crown on Moscow Flyer's head.
Former minister Joe Walsh was also there for the coronation, a poignant reminder of the days when the Government had more runners at Cheltenham than Martin Pipe.
The two politicians beamed proudly at winning trainer Jessica Harrington, and for Mr O'Donoghue, it was an occasion to reflect on the strides made by Irish feminism.
"We have women presidents, women jockeys winning at Cheltenham [ Nina Carberry on Tuesday] and women trainers," he said, as proudly as if this was all the result of Government tax breaks.
He could have mentioned women bookmakers too. Ballincollig's Ellen Martin - with whom Channel 4's John McCririck is hopelessly smitten - is back in Cheltenham this year, after taking a break in 2004 when she was eight months pregnant. She was one of the minority not celebrating the Flyer's win.
But she wasn't too worried either, because she carried a budgetary surplus from Tuesday thanks to the same Nina Carberry, whose 20/1 win was a triumph for bookies as well as feminism. "Go on the girls!" said Martin.
The band in the Guinness Village is still singing Fairytale of New York, and by the time Willie Mullins claimed the fifth Irish winner of the festival the punters providing backing vocals really did sound like it was Christmas Eve in the drunk tank.
But the fairytale everyone wanted to witness yesterday was a victory for the small man: Carlow trainer Tom Foley to be exact, who in Royal Paradise had the joint-favourite in the race he won 11 years ago with Danoli.
Tom is a man of the people. You know this because he doesn't wear a hat. No harm to horsey people, but their fondness for headwear borders on character weakness.
Most trainers would feel naked without their trilbies, although the broad-brimmed wax hat is acceptable too, and the slightly risqué alternative to both is to wear a cap. Yet in this millinery-intense world Tom Foley dares to go bare-headed.
You feared for him yesterday when it rained. And sure enough, Royal Paradise's chances disappeared in the Cotswold mud.
But Tom knows all about racing's ups and downs and so now, if she didn't know already, does Nina Carberry. Twenty-four hours after her triumph she was unseated at the start of her second ride at the festival yesterday when the horse shied at the tape.