UNDER STARTER’S ORDERS...

WALSH HAS LITTLE LUCK

MARK WALSH’S eleventh-hour Cheltenham call-up ended early when he shipped a heavy fall from Consul de Thaix in the Neptune Hurdle. Walsh was kicked about like a ball after a tumble on half-way. He was taken to hospital where tests revealed concussion and a fractured fibula which will sideline him for a month. The Clane jockey will miss plum rides on Jezki in the Stayers Hurdle as well as More Of That in the Gold Cup. Robbie Power will deputise in the former and in-form Noel Fehily will ride either More Of That or Minella Rocco in the big one tomorrow.

CODD REVS UP FOR TITLE BID

THE last amateur to win top jockey at Cheltenham was Jim Wilson in 1980 but Wexford’s Jamie Codd is placed to bridge the 37-year gap after a double for Gordon Elliott on Cause Of Causes in the Glenfarclas Cross-Country and Fayonagh in the Champion Bumper. ‘We popped Cause Of Causes over a couple of fences this morning and he felt great. He comes alive here,’ said Codd of the three-time Festival winner. Codd thought it was ‘game over’ when Fayonagh was briefly stranded at the start but a turbo-charged finish saw the 7/1 shot deliver Elliott’s fifth winner of the week.

JONJO’S FAMILY AFFAIR

AS A jockey Jonjo O’Neill provided iconic Festival moments, most notably winning the dramatic 1986 Gold Cup on Dawn Run. He has also trained a Gold Cup winner, Synchonised in 2012. But a new member of the family will write the first line in his Festival story today. O’Neill’s 19-year-old son, also called Jonjo but known as ‘Jonji’ around the stable to avoid confusion, has his first ride at the meeting on his father’s Another Hero in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase for amateur jockeys.

CHASING A RYANAIR

RYANAIR boss Michael O’Leary has already got on the scoreboard with wins for Apple’s Jade (OLBG Mares’ Hurdle) and Tiger Roll (NH Chase). He is trying to win his third Gold Cup tomorrow with Outlander. But the one O’Leary really wants is his own sponsored race this afternoon. The Ryanair Chase has been run for 12 years and his name is not yet on the roll of honour. He is represented by Empire Of Dirt, winner of the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate last year — a gelding which has improved so much this season that trainer Gordon Elliott was keen to run him in the Gold Cup.

MEADE EYES JUMP OF JOY

IRISH trainer Noel Meade has endured more Festival heartache than celebrations. But success for Disko in the JLT Novices’ Chase would be a first for him. Meade has had four Festival wins but never one over jumps.