From the paddock

A Cheltenham miscellany

ON TELEVISION

RTÉ 1 television will broadcast live coverage of the first five races at Cheltenham today, with coverage beginning at 1.25pm.

Channel 4 will have the same five races live, though their coverage will begin an hour earlier – at 12.25pm.

All seven races, of course, can be viewed live on Racing UK.

A half-hour highlights programme will begin on RTÉ 2 this evening at 7pm, while Channel 4’s round-up will begin at 12.10am tonight.

DOWN IN THE MOUNT

TONY McCoy believes Binocular’s withdrawal from the Stan James Champion Hurdle has “taken the gloss off” this year’s renewal.

The defending champion was declared a non-runner on Sunday after it emerged an allergy medication had failed to clear his system in time to run at the Cheltenham Festival.

Trainer Nicky Henderson was left with little choice but to take out his stable star and McCoy, who will not have a ride in the race now, described himself as “gutted”.

“I don’t think I have ever felt so low going into a Cheltenham Festival as I did on hearing the news that Binocular, my best ride of the meeting, was out of the Stan James Champion Hurdle after failing to clear medication for an allergy from his system,” he said.

“I only found out late on Saturday night when (owner) JP McManus rang to tell me and then Nicky Henderson phoned on Sunday morning to confirm it.

“I am gutted. I feel completely hollow and will now watch the race on the TV in the changing room.

“I hate sitting out championship races. There will, I am sure, be plenty of downers during the week but this was a kick in the groin before it had even started.

“It is tough enough to ride winners here and I have said all along that my week seemed utterly dependent on how he ran in the Champion.

“It has taken gloss off the race. It’s a good contest but, whatever your opinions, it was still hard to get away from him.”

If the horse shoe fits Buy it

SHOES made in the style of real horses’ feet and legs and complete with genuine horse hair are to go on sale at the Cheltenham Festival.

The knee and ankle-length zip-up hoof shoes were commissioned by betting company Betfair to celebrate 100 years of the festival.

The horseshoes are being sold for £1,300 a pair (€1,500), with all proceeds going to charity.

Each shoe is made using an imitation carbon-fibre hoof and up to 5,000 individual horse hairs stitched into a knee-length (55cm) or ankle-length (25cm) design.

Flashback

TWENTY-ONE years ago today (March 15th, 1990) saw one of the greatest shocks in Cheltenham history.

The 100 to 1 shot Norton’s Coin only ran in the Gold Cup as Welsh dairy farmer Sirrell Griffiths, his owner and trainer, missed the entry deadline for another race.

But he took full advantage of the opportunity, battling on splendidly to get the better of Jenny Pitman’s Toby Tobias, with hot favourite Desert Orchid only third.

Irish 'luck' Brits are jammier

THERE is no such thing as the “Luck of the Irish”, according to research by a major bookmaker published on the eve of the Cheltenham Festival.

Bookmakers Ladbrokes and racing website lovetheraces.com studied 12 months of Ladbrokes’ betting data and found that there are more lucky Brits than Irish.

There is a traditional belief in the betting community that Emerald Isle punters have the uncanny knack of being able to find more winners.

However, the researchers looked at 28,123 punters each side of the Irish Sea – a total of 56,246 – and found that 5,902 Brits win more than 40 per cent of the time, compared with 3,471 Irish.

It is not all bad news for the Irish, though. When Irish punters do win, they scoop an average of 167 per cent more than the Brits.

The average amount won per bet in Ireland is €46.40 whereas conservative UK punters pocket an average of just €17.40.