WE have had two winning days so far, so no complaints from me or my boss Pat O’Hare, though it is definitely a bit quieter in the ring this year. Tickets are down but turnover is up. Sometimes you’d be standing idle before a race, and that would never happen at Cheltenham.

Wednesday got off to a bad start, from our point of view, with Envoi Allen. We took some lumpy bets of £5,000 and £3,000 on the favourite. The one saving grace was that Sporting John finished out of the frame – he was well-backed by the home crowd.