Omar's Diary 8th March 2026

I realise it has been a long time since I have published my diary for which I sincerely apologise

How shall I say this?

To put things as economically as possible the diary has been on hold as a result of some very protracted negotiations over fees to be paid to myself and Man Servant for this much respected diary. Those differences have now been resolved, thankfully, and what better time to relaunch the diary than at the start of the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival.

Personally I am so relieved that Constitution Hill has now been retired from National Hunt Racing and following his nine length victory at Southwell will be retuned for some more flat racing this season. The level of excitement and glory that would have swept the country if he had run and won would have been stratospheric but the hope of that came with a huge risk. If he had run and fell or had to be pulled up his National Hunt career would have ended ignominiously. He would have retired as an also ran who ran just one race too many and the secret of enduring fame in any sports is to time retirement before that happens.

Today's diary will not involve any "clumbering up of the wee beastie" as the late Terry Wogan used to say before inflicting, sorry that should read "advising", his audience with his daily racing selection. It is far too early to do that. The first selections will appear overnight between Monday and Tuesday in plenty of time for you to make it to one of the High Street turf accountants.

To get an idea of just how big this festival of National Hunt racing is Man Servant, who loves his numbers, and I have compiled a the following data set which I believe is the correct term for such a thing.

Number of days - 4 starting on Tuesday 10th March and ending on Friday 13th March

Number of spectators - the course is expecting 66,000 spectators each day and of that 10,000 will be watching from special hospitality facilities.

Number of entries - as of today, Sunday 8th March, there are 708 horses entered. That number will reduce by the day as horses are withdrawn or because their rating is too low and they will not be allowed to run once the British Horseracing Authority starts the "cut". Tuesday's numbers have already been finalised at 112, Wednesday's will be confirmed on Monday and so on throughout the rest of the week.

Prize Money - first place prize money across all 28 races is approximately £4.6 million. The most valuable race of the festival is the "Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase" off at four in the afternoon on the Thursday with first place worth £351,000. That reminds me, I must look into my membership status of that esteemed club in London.

Attendance - the course is expecting 66,000 spectators a day and of those 10,000 per day will be viewing events from hospitality facilities. A total of 36,500 cars will arrive. The nearby station (Cheltenham Spa) will handle an extra 134,000 passengers. There will be 100 helicopter movements per day. The shuttle bus service between the town and the course will carry 80,000 passengers

Eating and drinking over the 4 days

Guinness - 265,000 pints

Champagne - 20,000 bottles

Tea - 9,000 gallons

Cheese - 5 tonnes

Bread Rolls - 45,000

Fresh and smoked salmon - 5 tonnes

Kitchens - there will be 34 handling all of this food

People - there will be 50 coaches per day bringing day staff from Bristol, London and Birmingham

Kibble, Sheba and Felix - none of them are mentioned anywhere in the data sources

Betting - 250 on course bookmakers or "turf accountants" as I like to call them adding a degree of respectability to their profession.

I would have completely forgotten about this major event if it hadn't been for "Ticker" turning up on the doorstep of Omar Towers earlier today. You may remember him as my personal turf accountant. He said he had been unavoidably detained but was now free to resume his old profession. We look forward to seeing him on Tuesday to look after our selections when we "clumber up the beasties".