A Dublin bookie has decided to pay out on a race at this week’s Cheltenham festival before the race has even started.
Paddy Power bookmakers have decided that Istabraq is such a strong favourite for tomorrow’s Champion Hurdle that they are paying out to their punters in advance.Managing director Stewart Kenny said he believed Istabraq is such a certainty that he had told bookies to treat it as a winner.Paddy Power’s runs 118 bookie offices but were not prepared to say how much they were planning on paying out to lucky gamblers.. The combination of Tony McCoy in the saddle and drying conditions underfoot have proved irresistible to punters who have backed Stage Affair down to second favouritism, at 8-1 with Coral, for tomorrow’s Champion Hurdle Istabraq still dominates their book at 2-7. The combination of Tony McCoy in the saddle and drying conditions underfoot have proved irresistible to punters who have backed Stage Affair down to second favouritism, at 8-1 with Coral, for tomorrow’s Champion Hurdle. Istabraq still dominates their book at 2-7.
Stage Affair is also an entry for the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, but confirmation that he goes for the more important race and that McCoy has deserted his Champion winner of 1997, Make A Stand, to ride him have stimulated interest in Dermot Weld’s charge who was runner-up to Istabraq in Ireland’s equivalent of the Champion. The drying ground, which suits Stage Affair, also prompted Coral to ease Dato Star to 10-1 from 8-1.Bellator, another perceived to need give in the ground to produce his best, has been eased to 3-1 from 11-4 for the Arkle Trophy by Coral. Martin Pipe’s Wahiba Sands was cut to 9-2 from 11-2.Nicky Henderson’s Inca has hardened to 5-2 from 3-1 for the Bumper following the news that Patriarch, a 6-1 chance in Coral’s book, will not run.The win of Magic Combination in Saturday’s Imperial Cup and the lure of a £50,000 bonus for winning the Coral Cup on Wednesday has prompted that race’s sponsor to scythe his odds to 5-1 from 25-1. The runner-up at Sandown, The Gatherer, is now a 7-1 chance for Thursday’s County Hurdle.Conor O’Dwyer, who is favourite to get off to a flying start at the Festival when he rides Youlneverwalkalone in the opener, was supported at 33-1 and 25-1 to be the meeting’s leading rider and is now a 16-1 chance.

Coral have eased Tony McCoy to 6-4 from 11-8.CORAL: Arkle Trophy: 5-2 Decoupage, 3-1 Bellator (from 11-4), 9-2 Wahiba Sands (from 11-2), 8-1 Upgrade, 9-1 Tiutchev, 10-1 Cenkos, 11-1 Fadalko, 14-1 others.Champion Hurdle: 2-7 Istabraq, 8-1 Stage Affair (from 9-1), 10-1 Dato Star (from 8-1), Hors La Loi, 20-1 Blue Royal, Theatreworld, 25-1 Katarino, 28-1 Ashley Park, 33-1 others.Coral Cup: 5-1 Magic Combination (from 25-1), 8-1 Ross Moff, Solo Mio, Phariwarmer, 11-1 Teaatral, Auetaler, 12-1 others.Festival Bumper: 5-2 Inca (from 3-1), 6-1 Tuesday, 7-1 Ned Kelly, 8-1 It Takes Time, 9-1 Ballyamber, 10-1 Be My Royal, Ready To Rumble, 14-1 others.County Hurdle: 7-1 Geos, The Gatherer (from 14-1), 9-1 Copeland, Master Tern, 10-1 Afarad, Spokesman, Moving On Up, 12-1 others.Top Jockey at Festival: 6-4 Tony McCoy (from 11-8), 5-2 Norman Williamson, 7-2 Mick Fitzgerald, 8-1 Richard Johnson, 12-1 Joe Tizzard, 14-1 Paul Carberry, 16-1 Conor O’Dwyer (from 33-1), 25-1 Charlie Swan, 33-1 Carl Llewellyn, Adrian Maguire, 40-1 others.. There is a new guv’nor at Cheltenham for the millennium Festival. In recent years, Ireland’s Imperial Call was always the first to arrive at the racecourse stables and claim the territory as his own. There is a new guv’nor at Cheltenham for the millennium Festival.

In recent years, Ireland’s Imperial Call was always the first to arrive at the racecourse stables and claim the territory as his own.
This season, however, the 1996 Gold Cup winner has stayed at home and the deeds to the property have passed to another from his land. “Imperial Call used to stamp his authority on the place by arriving on the Thursday, a week before he was due to run,” Edward Gillespie, the Cheltenham managing director, said yesterday. “We’ll miss him.”But Team [Willie] Mullins arrived at 7.00 yesterday evening and they’re in charge now. Florida Pearl led the string out for a little walk around the car park. He’s the boss.”There were an estimated 2,000 visitors to Prestbury Park yesterday, taking advantage of the clement weather to view the stage for the week’s fierce confrontation which begins tomorrow. The good conditions mean there will be similar ground for the meeting.”It’s been drying slowly for the last week and I think you’ve now got to call it good ground,” Philip Arkwright, the clerk of the course, who is officiating at his last Festival, said yesterday. “However, I’m confident it won’t change to something like good to firm on Thursday as the moisture is right in the ground and I don’t foresee any changes.”The firming in the ground has also meant a firming in commitments.

Norman Williamson has chosen to ride Decoupage for Charlie Egerton in tomorrow’s Irish Independent Arkle Chase rather than Venetia Williams’s Bellator. “I ride Decoupage in the Arkle,” Williamson confirmed after walking the course yesterday. “He’s good on this sort of ground and that is what swayed me. It was a difficult decision to make as both he and Bellator are two cracking horses and I just hope I’ve chosen right.”Williamson, who is 5-2 with Coral and William Hill to be leading jockey at the meeting, has also collected the spare ride on Nicky Henderson’s Architect in the Triumph Hurdle on Thursday. “As it stands, Mick Fitzgerald will be on Mister Banjo and Norman will ride Architect and I’ll be in touch with [the agent] Dave Roberts to find a jockey for my other runner, Regal Exit,” Henderson said.

The Lambourn trainer was another tramping around Cheltenham’s acres yesterday and it was an exercise which persuaded him to switch the well-fancied Geos from the last race of the meeting, the County Hurdle. “I think because of the way it’s dried up Geos will now go for the Coral Cup as it’s over a bit further,” Henderson said. “I could be three-handed there as I hope to run Tenseesee and Capitaine Leau, but he could get balloted out.”The going means that Lady Rebecca is almost certain to ignore tomorrow’s Champion Hurdle and contest the Stayers’ Hurdle on Thursday instead That would set up a rematch with last year’s victor, Anzum. “He did have a little muscle problem after he worked last Wednesday,” Alan King, the title-holder’s trainer, said yesterday.