Winds stirrup a storm at the races

HARDY rain-soaked racegoers wrestled with their umbrellas while they cheered home the horses, as Cheltenham was blasted by 50mph gusts yesterday.

- CHRIS RICHES

But the gloomy weather is set to clear later today, as bookies fear one of their worst Gold Cups ever if Harry Redknapp’s 5/2 favourite The Jukebox Man wins the festival’s big 4pm race.

Ex-Tottenham manager Harry, 79, says if he scoops the Gold Cup he will celebrate pocketing the £350,000 prize with a £13.95 haddock fish supper at his local chippie, Chez Fred in Bournemouth.

Harry said: “We'll probably go home, get to Chez Fred and have a bit of fish and chips. It would be great but I’m not counting my chickens.”

St Patrick’s Thursday — the third day of the four-day Cheltenham Festival — is so called as it’s the most popular gathering for Irish punters.

But the white tops of their £7.50 pints of Guinness were almost blown off by the mighty gusts shaking the grandstands yesterday, with the wind chill dropping the temperature to just 5C.

Many racegoers battled to keep hold of their umbrellas and hats, but defiant business owners Kate and Rich Grant, from Stroud, Glos, said the gloomy weather would not ruin their day. Kate, 60, said: “I've got this big Guinness hat that kept the rain off.”