Festival Diary

Harry Bannister, a distant cousin of athletics legend Sir Roger Bannister, will be in action at Cheltemham today on Bigmartre in the JLT Chase.

Keeping up a family tradition, Harry, 23, a two-time champion amateur before turning professional, breaks the fourminute barrier for a mile every day – albeit on horseback. There must be something in the Bannister genes – Harry ran for Yorkshire as a schoolboy and still runs because he enjoys it. As for Bigmartre? “He jumps and has two-mile speed,” Bannister says. “I think he’s been crying out for further. I’ll be surprised if he’s not in front at the foot of the hill but what happens after that is anyone’s guess.

Tom George, whose Summerville Boy ended a long wait for his second Festival winner on Tuesday, shares something in common with Aidan O’brien. They were both barred from the winner’s enclosure here after a winner.

In O’brien’s case, it was because he looked so youthful when Istabraq won his first Champion Hurdle – for George, it was because they had not seen him for 16 years. In the end, a shoulder charge did the job.

Ensuring he kept his feet on the ground as only a friend can, the Newmarket Flat trainer Robert Cowell asked George whether he realised that, at the present strike-rate, they will both be 65 when it happens again.

Lee Westwood, the golfer and owner of today’s runners Augusta Kate and Ballyalton, left the course looking like he had put on a few pounds on Tuesday and, indeed, he had; he had £22,000 stuffed up his shirt after landing the Tote Jackpot – the first six races – for a £128 outlay.

To cap his day, he also backed the winner, Mister Whitaker, in the seventh and, to add to it all, the Tote had to call security before handing him the cash.