Tapes go up on the centenary Cheltenham Festival

Spare a thought, however, for luckless Malton rider Dougie Costello, who will miss the entire meeting after suffering a suspected broken leg at Stratford yesterday.

It is a cruel blow for the 28-year-old jockey, who was due to ride John Quinn’s highly-regarded Recession Proof in the Supreme Novices, the Festival’s opening race, before a first Gold Cup mount on Cheltenham course specialist Midnight Chase.

Such contrasting fortunes are indicative of National Hunt racing and its vagaries that will be witnessed over the next four days.

Walsh, the most successful rider in the 100-year history of the Festival, considered himself “very lucky” to escape relatively unscathed when King Of The Refs suffered a final-flight fall at Naas last Wednesday.

The 31-year-old, who played down its seriousness, was sidelined for two days after the kicking but was determined to be fit to ride Hurricane Fly, the seven-time Grade One winner, in one of the few races still to elude Ireland’s greatest jockey of all time.

As Walsh, a replacement for the horse’s regular jockey Paul Townend, became acquainted with the strapping horse, his thoughts, and those of the racing fraternity, were with the popular Costello who had already won on the Quinn-trained Palawi before calamity struck aboard Veiled Applause.

“They are fairly sure he has suffered at least one serious fracture to a part of his leg, if not two,” said Quinn, who will not confirm a replacement jockey for Recession Proof until this morning.

Mulholland, an ex-jockey who trains both Midnight Chase and Veiled Applause, is full of sympathy for Costello.

He said: “The horse is perfect, thankfully. Dougie came down and schooled him and we were all very happy with him, but I’m gutted for Dougie.”

Mulholland confirmed last night that Tom Scudamore will replace Costello on Midnight Chase because he believes the jockey “will suit the horse” which has won four of his six starts around Cheltenham.