Horseracing latest: Cheltenham Festival - day 2

Racing at Cheltenham has been abandoned today (Wednesday) due to high winds. The races will be spread out over the next two days. Racing kicks off at 12.30pm tomorrow on a ten-race card, although punters should check the distances of each race as some have been amended, or moved between the Old Course and the New Course.

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Unless the entries are opened again, all ante-post bets will stand with the high-street bookmakers, although smaller, independent bookies may have different rules.

Betfair has suspended its markets, but they should be up and running again as the race order emerges later today.

Anyone with tickets to the racing today will get a 100 per cent refund, although they will not get entry to tomorrow with those tickets.

It's not as if punters could have had it any harder after yesterday firmly belonged to the bookies. Not a single favourite managed to reach the winners' enclosure. Punters who were keen on the chances of the battling Katchit, were put off by the fact that a five-year-old hadn't won the Champion Hurdle since 1985 and that the Triumph Hurdle winner hadn't gone on to win the Champion since the great Persian War in 1968.

Katchit's challenge saw him as the 74th five-year-old to line-up for the race since that age group's last success, but his inspirational victory made it four wins and a second from five appearances at the course.

Bookies went 10/1 about Katchit winning next year's Champion, although they have halved that price with runner-up Osana 7/1, last year's winner Sublimity 14/1 and yesterday's Supreme Novices winner Captain Cee Bee, 14/1.  

Where the bookies got off lightest was in the last race, the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle. Saturday's Imperial Cup winner Ashkazar had been backed down ante-post from 16/1 to as short as 15/8 before the off, but Crack Away Jack out-battled the favourite to give trainer Emma Lavelle her first Festival success.  

The Tote was celebrating too as a record pool of £989,577 was invested on the Placepot, beating the previous best amount of £907,593.

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