A decision will be made this morning on whether Ireland's star racehorse, Istabraq, should run in this afternoon's Smurfit Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.
An almost unbackable favourite to win hurdling's blue riband event for the third successive year, the horse was found to have a trickle of blood in a nostril at the racecourse yesterday evening. A decision on whether or not he will run will be made at 11.0 a.m. when trainer Aidan O'Brien gets to the track.
The indications are that the horse will take his chance, but O'Brien put the quandary facing him in worrying context last night when he said: "We have a decision to make and only the race will be the test. If he runs we won't know what effect this has had on the horse until after the race."
O'Brien revealed that such an occurrence has happened before with the famous racehorse, but it turned out to be nothing. "We scoped him on that occasion and found nothing, but we will not be able to scope him now so close to the race," he said.
The J.P. McManus-owned star is such a hot favourite that two Irish bookmaking chains, Paddy Power and Cashman's, began paying out on winning bets yesterday. A Paddy Power spokesman, Mr Stewart Kenny, confirmed last night that the chain had already paid "about £34,000" of an estimated £75,000 liability, including £20,000 to one punter who collected his winnings before flying to Cheltenham at noon.
He said the remainder of the bets would be paid even if the horse is pulled out: "The offer holds, but we'll be very disappointed if he doesn't run because he's the highlight of the festival."
Mr Kenny conceded the offer would not cost the chain "fortunes" and, in the Cheltenham context, £75,000 is certainly no fortune. Close on £20 million is expected to be bet in Ireland alone on the week's racing, leaving the estimated 7,000 punters travelling to Cheltenham from this State to boost the on-course bookies.
A total of £8.1 million was bet with the Tote alone at Cheltenham last year where five Irish-trained horses were successful, including Istabraq, which is again the mainstay of the Irish attack.
Tickets for the three days have been sold out and the festival is also gathering more casual television viewers. Television also has a bearing on today's last race. On last Friday's Late Late Show, J.P. McManus was offered a free charity bet of £5,000. He put it on his own horse Darapour, whose day job at home is as a lead horse for Istabraq.