The Cheltenham Festival- a horse racing showpiece.

The Cheltenham Festival - a horse racing experience.

After winning the Six Nations rugby union title over the weekend,  you'd have thought Ireland would be cock a hoop, ready to celebrate long into next week and wishing that every year could produce the same results. The Irish love a party, revel in the craic and go completely potty when their sporting heroes win so handsomely and conclusively which is pretty much what the Irish did to clinch the Six Nations title.

So when somebody tells them that they can keep drinking huge quantities of Guinness for as long as they like deep into this week, then very few objections will be aired. And there is one sporting extravaganza that completely unites Ireland for just a few triumphant days, when everything seems tickety boo, hunky dory and just right.

This week sees the return of the Cheltenham Festival, horse racing at its most atmospheric and expectant. But when a vast majority of the Irish racing community comes together this week we will know that all in the land is well and the whole of Gloucestershire will raise several glasses, toast their friends and family and hope that some kind hearted bookmaker will find it in their heart to reward them with substantial amounts of money.

Because that's what, essentially, Cheltenham is all about. It is one of the first of the high profile race meetings of the year and the punters and experts will gather at Cheltenham with a pint of beer in one hand, a betting slip in the other and all of those understandable anxieties betting folk always feel. It's the feeling they get when the money they've handed over to the bookies so willingly and unhesitatingly suddenly takes on a new meaning. The chances are it may never be returned.

But it's the Irish contingent at Cheltenham that seem to hold most of us in thrall. Most of the faces, jockeys and trainers converging on Gloucestershire will come from Dublin, County Cork, Limerick and most of  Southern Ireland. They will proudly parade their beautifully groomed horses around the paddock, tenderly holding onto their sleek thoroughbreds and then retire to the stands with hope and ambition while all around a huge congregation of racing fans will cheer themselves hoarse.

Horse racing, if you'll forgive me, has never really sent my pulse racing or left me lost for superlatives which is what sport should always do or maybe I've missed something. Of course the  thrill of watching your horse gallop around a course and then sprinting for the finishing line has to be the best feeling any punter can possibly feel.

But the Irish will be there in that glistening Gloucestershire idyll in their cheerful hordes, laughing joyously, swigging back several barrel loads of beer and exchanging light hearted banter on every subject known to mankind. From the ridiculously silly price of Guinness to the extortionate sums needed to keep living, the Irish will have a joke about everything and anything because that's what Cheltenham does to them.

Then having picked up their winnings the Irish will look forward to St Patrick's Day in a couple of days time and wonder if this should be the cue for great outpourings on the subject of literature. They will sit in their pubs, recite several lines from James Joyce, quote from that great literary lion who goes by the name of Oscar Wilde and then finish off the afternoon with some sweet as sugar poetry from William Yeats.

And yet the centrepiece of Cheltenham has always been the Champions Hurdle, the Champion Chase and the Gold Cup and for most racing enthusiasts this has to be their equivalent to the FA Cup Final or the final Test match at the cricketing Oval. They have trained their horses to the peak of physical condition, bristled with excitement at the prospect of victory and then quietly slipped into the background until that special day when the trainers and jockeys emerge from their races with the broadest of smiles.

On the first day of Cheltenham it's the Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy which will take pride of place and horses with those peculiar sounding names will be trotting gingerly towards the starting line with an almost uncanny sense of occasion. Their ears will be alert, they will respond to gentle encouragement and then charge off into the distance.  Cheltenham is one of those richly sociable and upmarket horse racing meetings where public and celebrities alike mingle naturally with a twinkle in their eye.

So it is then that the combined talents of Buveur D'Air, Charli Parcs, Elgin, Faugheen, John Constable- yes folks Constable complete with saddle, jockey and trainer as opposed to paintbrushes- Melon and last but not least Mick Jazz. It's at times like this that as a social observer of these events that you begin to wonder if the above named horses have ever been consulted when it came to the choice of their names.

When all is said and done it probably doesn't matter to these beautiful creatures and you can be sure that they don't mind at all. Still, who am I to pass judgment on something I know very little about anyway? As long as the horses are well and content, none of us should be overly concerned and besides it's the taking part that counts.

Something tells me that the first day at the Cheltenham Festival will be filled with the joys of spring and by the end of the day, most of the punters will feel privileged that they were ones who won a fortune on the day and they were the ones whose judgment and knowledge on the day were spot on.  It is a day when horse racing's greatest characters simply want their day to go on forever. They can hardly be blamed.