This year's dazzling sunshine brings luck to festival race-goers

The vagaries of the Irish weather were never better illustrated than at the start of the Punchestown Festival yesterday.

Under glorious sunshine a huge crowd took their chances on a day at the races, and the general reaction was one of satisfaction at their gamble.

"It has all gone remarkably well. The work we have done seems to have alleviated the problems we had with the traffic last year and the weather has been a huge help, too. I think everybody has had a great day out," said the Punchestown spokesman, Richie Galway, who estimated the attendance at 16,000, a first-day Festival record.

The event reportedly included the Grand Prix team owner Eddie Jordan and Andrew Lloyd Webber's wife, Madeleine, a successful racehorse owner.

Almost £1.4 million was bet on course, and £914,647 was bet with the bookmakers - compared with £891,853 last year - while £360,947 was wagered on the Tote. A cool £161,000 was bet solely on the fifth race.

Favourite backers didn't have all that good a day, however. Considering that the favourite in the first race, Tearaway King - owned by J.P. McManus's wife, Noreen - started at the prohibitive odds of 2/9, he could have been considered something of a certainty in the Ladies Cup; but he was beaten in a exciting photo-finish by the 11/1 shot, 10-year-old Digacre, previously placed a number of times.

The race did provide some glorious viewing, however, as it was run over the famous Punchestown Banks course, and Digacre's Curragh owner and trainer, Mrs Marie Barnwell, was ecstatic. "I've been trying to win this race since 1985, and it's a great feeling," she enthused.

Richard Dunwoody rode the English trained Celibate to win the featured £55,000 BMW Chase, and McManus was compensated for Tearaway King's defeat with Cardinal Hill.

Today's racing features the return of Florida Pearl, a beaten favourite in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in the £120,000 Heineken Gold Cup. Punters will be hoping to get their money back, but the forecasters predict they have already backed a winner.

The sun is set to shine on until the festival closes on Friday.