CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL:THE CHELTENHAM Roar has become the stuff of legend. It's the enormous cheer that goes up when the tapes are raised for the first race of the festival and it never fails to send a tingle up the spines of racegoers.
But is it as loud as the Clare Shout which emerged when Clare hurlers began winning everything in sight in the 1990s?
Yesterday bookmaker Paddy Power decided to measure the roar and brought a decibel gun to Prestbury Park. "It's the first time I brought a gun to Cheltenham," Mr Power whispered as police stood on duty around the racecourse.
The roar went up and the gun measured 100.5 decibels, the equivalent of standing beside a power saw.
"I thought it would be louder," a slightly disappointed Mr Power said afterwards. "Maybe I held it too high."
The roar of the crowd looked like being drowned out by the wind and rain at one point yesterday. Two wet politicians, Fine Gael deputy Lucinda Creighton and Senator Paul Bradford sought refuge in the Horse Racing Ireland chalet. It was the tenth visit for the senator but the first for the Dublin deputy. "It's great, apart from the rain," she said.
But the Cork senator was happier as he reckoned the wet ground would favour Denman, the Cork-bred challenger to Kauto Star in Friday's Gold Cup.
He was with Noreen O'Connor, whose son MJ is making his debut in Cheltenham today, riding Dreux in the amateur race. "I can't watch him," she said. "I'm too nervous."
Michael Smurfit is not a man for nerves and he was relaxed yesterday as it was his first time to attend the race meeting since he retired.
His son was presenting the prizes in the Champion Hurdle. "No Irish in the first three ," Mr Smurfit said. "Who would have predicted that?"
Racing enthusiast Hector Ó hEochagáin predicted that he would be "mesmerised, fried, wrecked and in smithereens" by the end of this week.
"When I get home I'll lock myself in the garage and talk to the lawnmower," he said.
Now what odds would you get on that?
