'No pattern' to seven fatalities

The managing director of Cheltenham, Edward Gillespie, insisted last night there is no pattern to the sad statistic that seven horses have been killed at the festival.

Five horses died yesterday, including the Willie Mullins-trained pair Holy Orders and Mr Babbage. The latter was one of three to die in the four-mile National Hunt Chase alone. The others were Bailea Star and Milenaire.

Olaso was killed in the last race.

"The first two fatalities were caused by horses cannoning into each other, and they have all occurred after falls. There is no pattern here and no sense that the ground is to blame," said Gillespie.

"It is very sad to think of all these empty stables, but in the past, when the festival was over three days, there were meetings when we had more than seven fatalities."

The JP McManus-owned No Where To Hyde was a high-profile casualty on Wednesday when falling at the last in the Coral Cup.