Irish flocking to Cheltenham again

Irish runners and racegoers will be back in force at Cheltenham for The Open meeting which gets under way on Friday.

A total of 64 entries have been made by trainers here with around 30 horses set to take part over the three days.

The Irish racing community missed it`s annual pilgrimage to the Cheltenham Festival last March when the outbreak of foot and mouth disease intervened.

And racefans are now showing plenty of interest in this weekend`s fixture with two of the Irish travel companies organising tours to The Open reporting plenty of bookings.

Joe Tully, managing director of Tully`s Travel, said: 'We are delighted to be travelling to The Open after the understandable cancellation of the Cheltenham Festival in March.

'Everyone is looking forward to an enjoyable weekend`s racing and our numbers are up on last year.'

These sentiments were echoed by Walter Greacen, the managing director of Leopardstown Tours who are bringing around 50 racegoers this year.

He commented: 'We`re glad to be going back to Cheltenham.'

Philip Rothwell indicated that Palouse, who has been allotted a weight of 9st 4lb in Saturday`s Thomas Pink Gold Cup, is more likely to run in the Stg£30,000-added Grade Two Independent Newspaper Novices` Chase the following afternoon.

The County Wicklow-based handler said: 'Palouse won`t run in the Thomas Pink Gold Cup if he`s 10lb out of the handicap. He`ll come over for the two-mile Independent Newspaper Novices` Chase on the Sunday instead.

'We`ve been over for the meeting for the last year or two. We`d have let him take his chance in the Thomas Pink if he was around the 10st mark and he finished second in the Gerrard Novices` Hurdle at the meeting last year.

'On his last run he was fourth to Wicked Crack, who has since finished second in the champion chase at Down Royal ahead of Florida Pearl. The form is working out well and Palouse is much better on good ground - it was soft the day that Wicked Crack beat him.

'I think we`ll give anything a run for its money. He jumps very well and if the ground is good, he`ll jump fast and they`ll go a nice gallop which should be ideal.'