Cheltenham: How was the extra day?
Justin Carthy
Bookmaker for Chronicle
"It's fair to say we have been having an up and down Festival one way or another. It's hard to see how I can come out ahead after the week we've had, but that is what it is all about; you shouldn't come to Cheltenham if you don't want to play the game. If punters didn't win then they wouldn't come back, would they?
"All the big races have gone against me. I've just not had the bounce of the ball, though I did take £200,000 on Baracouda, which helped.
"We love it though. Three days, four days, five days, we don't care. I wish it was Cheltenham every day. From the end of play today we'll be looking forward to next year. In the Gold Cup I really needed everyone at the top of the betting to get beaten. I needed Kicking King, Celestial Gold, Beef Or Salmon - all of them - to get done, so I took a bit of a bath on that too.
"I was hoping for a miracle at the end, like a lot of people around here..."
Nicky Henderson
Racehorse trainer
"It has been a better week than we were expecting. We had a pretty gloomy time around Christmas, and they are pretty dark days when you see everyone else out there racing every day and you are not competitive. It was gloomy for me, gloomy for the owners, but it's particularly hard on the lads who do all the hard work trying to get them right.
"I'm very happy with four days - I've wanted more for years and I am in total support of it. We could have five days and I would not complain. Ascot has five so why not Cheltenham? We all have to head off to Uttoxeter tomorrow so why not stay here and have done with it.
"The new racing has been acceptable. The 2m5f chase was the new feature race and horses that suit that trip deserve their own championship. I've been happy to win the ones we did, but would really have loved to have taken home dad's race for sentimental reasons, if nothing else."
Marion Melbourn
Cabair Helicopter Shuttles
"We operate a service in and out of the Festival every day from our headquarters at Elstree, near London, but for the first time this year we have also done a shuttle service from a pub just a few miles outside Cheltenham. We run two helicopters, a Bell Jetranger and an Aerospatiale Twin Squirrel.
"The shuttle costs £250 per person plus VAT for the return trip, seven minutes each way and with a great view of the traffic jams in both directions. Cheltenham is a big event for us but we do all the big race meetings.
"For us the Tuesday and the Wednesday this week were a little quieter with six flights a day. It was the same on Thursday but Gold Cup day is always massive, and we have eight shuttles running.
"When it was three days we were up to the limit all the way through, but the extra day has diluted two of the days. We're still busy, though, and we're delighted to be involved."
Mike Tindall
Bath and England rugby player
"I have done only two out of the four days. I did Tuesday because I have a share of a horse that ran in the Fred Winter, Ready. It did OK, came in ninth, but it was just a bit quick for him. Obviously I had a few beers and I've been carrying a bug, so I didn't make it Wednesday and Thursday.
"I was always going to come along here on the Friday for the Gold Cup. It really is a special atmosphere here, one of the best I've experienced in sport. It helps that 90% of the people here have got some money riding...perhaps that's what we need to do at Twickenham to get the atmosphere improved."
John McCririck
Channel 4 pundit
"I have been campaigning for a four-day Festival since the 70s - my pieces on the subject for the Sporting Life were mentioned in the Cheltenham board meeting minutes - so I am delighted that it has finally arrived.
"I have to hold my hand up and say that it hasn't been as busy, and I am sad that the attendances are 10,000 down each day. I thought it would be absolutely fizzing and popping every day and that hasn't been the case.
"The Irish are the same, but others have been coming for two days instead of three or even the full four. But I hope it is a financial success, and I hope it continues because the whole of racing will benefit. The next change is to move it to run from Wednesday to Saturday, so the big race is on the weekend like the rest of the world.
"It's been a great festival. My highlight was the Champion Hurdle, seeing Hardy Eustace hang on for the race against that bully Harchibald."
Maggie & John Armstrong
Owners of the Puesdown Inn, outside Cheltenham
"There's no question that with the fourth day being added we've not had quite as many people through the door each day as in the previous three years.
"We have got three rooms and celebrity chef Brian Turner takes two of those for his entourage, and the other goes to a journalist from the Associated Press.
"Otherwise the bulk of our trade is people for breakfasts and dinners and it's not been as busy as we might have hoped. A lot of businesses round here build their year around the Festival and pump up their prices accordingly, but there are mixed feelings about four days.
"You never know what might happen, though. We were just sitting down for a drink on the Thursday night last year when a limousine full of Irish bankers arrived. They drank Bollinger until 3am while they danced on the tables. They must have had some winners."