Cheltenham raised a cheer – but fatalities and fallouts tainted bounce-back festival

Attendances and British-trained winners were on the up but low points included more starting trouble and jockey spats

Attendance: up. British winners: up. Bookies’ profits: through the roof. Punters will wince at the last of those after a ferociously difficult four days at Cheltenham, with winners at 66-1, 50-1, 40-1 and 33-1 among the biggest skinners for the books. The Paddy Power client in Ireland who was paid €558,000 (£484,000) after putting Friday’s first six winners into a 50 cent each-way Lucky 63 would be a very worthy inductee into the Cheltenham Hall of Fame.

With the betting blinkers off, though, this was very much a bounce-back festival, for the track and British racing as a whole after three years of declining crowds and a decades-worth of embarrassing pastings for the home team at the hands of the Irish.