From the paddock

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Idiot abroad Protestor nearly causes serious incident

A SERIOUS incident was narrowly averted at Cheltenham yesterday when a man ran on to the track near the end of the Ryanair Chase. The protestor climbed through the running rail, around 100 yards from the winning post, as the horses flashed by him.

He was wielding a placard which was aimed at Ryanair’s cabin crew hiring policy. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary owns a number of horses, two of which won at the festival on Tuesday, and was again at Cheltenham racecourse yesterday.

The man was wrestled to the floor by police and security staff at the end of the race – won by the Tony McCoy-ridden Albertas Run – and was promptly arrested.

There were no reported injuries.

“We put a security person on every possible exit in the championship races but we had no intelligence suggesting we had reason to do that for the Ryanair,” said Cheltenham managing director Edward Gillespie.

“It’s a police matter and they are dealing with it now.” O’Leary said yesterday evening. “If some idiot wants to try and make some publicity for himself let him. If he’s prepared to run in front of AP McCoy riding a horse, let him.”

Flashback

THIS day 18 years ago (March 18th, 1993), Jodami took the Cheltenham Gold Cup for trainer Peter Beaumont.

The eight-year-old took up the running just after the last under Mark Dwyer and ran on really well to hold off Rushing Wild by two lengths. Jodami was sent off an 8 to 1 shot while French raider The Fellow was the 5 to 1 favourite after being the subject of a huge gamble but he could finish only fourth.

Not all gloom Irish travel numbers still hold up

DESPITE the never-ending recession in Ireland, it seems there are many still willing to make the annual journey to Gloucestershire.

By this evening, roughly 220,000 people will have attended Cheltenham racecourse this week, and the numbers of Irish people present appears to be holding steady.

The Cheltenham Festival is, of course, synonymous with the Irish since the 1950s, but the economic situation was expected to impact hard on the numbers making the trip across the Irish Sea this year.

However, estimates put the number of Irish travelling over at around 5,000 – the same as last year (though 2010 did witness a big reduction in Irish visitors when compared with previous years).

Ryanair put on 22 extra flights for the festival this week, and Irish Ferries reported a 20 per cent jump in bookings, with many also going in the other direction for the Six Nations game in Dublin tomorrow.

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 1.10am tonight.

Big Buck's Lives up to name

THE battle between the punters and the bookies is heading for a photo-finish.

Big Buck’s, Junior and Noble Prince were winning favourites for the punters yesterday, but bookmakers have reported they are still up heading into the fourth day of racing at Cheltenham.

Big Buck’s once again lived up to his name when raking in the cash for punters with a third successive win the Ladbrokes World Hurdle.

Paddy Power admitted losing €1.4 million on that race alone, while others also took a battering.

“That was the result we were dreading,” said Stan James spokesman Garry McGibbon. “Big Buck’s was our worst ante-post loser of the entire meeting, partly as a consequence of the enhanced double we offered a few weeks ago on Quevega to win the Mares’ Hurdle and Big Buck’s to win this race. We’re gutted.”