| Race-day fever hits Cheltenham again
 CHELTENHAM
fever hit the Irish last week as they flocked in droves to the annual
racing festival.
Some one in five visitors or an estimated 50,000 people at the event
were Irish according to organisers.
The majority flew to the event and race sponsor Ryanair put on up to 20
additional flights to its normal schedule to Birmingham, Bristol and the
East Midlands to cater for Festival-goers.
A large number of Irish race-goers also took their cars to the Festival
this year, travelling by ferry and driving overland.
One Irish punter who attended the Festival on Tuesday said: “There
was such a great atmosphere as the weather was shinning and everyone was
in great spirits. There was a massive Irish presence with Irish music
and of course all the Irish horses running. It was a great day out and
I’ll definitely be back next year.”
Like previous years there was a massive Irish line-up of horses competing
in the races and Irish punters were busy placing bets both in Ireland
and England.
Ivan Yates chairman and chief executive of Celtic Bookmakers in Ireland
said: “Our 50 shops will turn over about £3million during
Cheltenham week out of an annual turnover of about £85million.”
Also for the first time ever Irish and British bookmakers at Cheltenham
used overnight money storage facilities at the track to improve security.
The move comes after a series of high-profile attacks on bookies in Britain
and Ireland at the major horse racing festivals.
One of Ireland’s leading on-course bookies Justin Carthy of Chronicle
Bookmakers welcomed the introduction of the deposit facilities.
“It’s a great idea. These measures should have been put in
place before so that bookmakers aren’t sitting ducks.”
Last year one of the best-known British cash bookies in racing Freddie
Williams was forced off the road by masked men carrying crowbars and robbed
of £70,000.
Raiders also made off with £32,000 from a house rented by Warrington
bookmaker Keith Harris.
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