Officially, it's not St Patrick's Day until Monday 17th, but it's become a tradition at Cheltenham since the Festival became a four-day event to have a day named after the Irish patron saint. The card is always full of Irish horses, jockeys and trainers, and there's no shortage of Irish in the crowd either. Guinness is a prominent sponsor of the Festival and the Guinness Village is something like the day's official watering hole. Even in the morning, it's packed:
There were Guinness St Pat's hats everywhere you looked, although most of the people wearing them weren't actually Irish. I drew these characters on separate pages and pieced this image together.
Inside the Guinness Village, I fought my way through the throng and rested on the railings of the bandstand to draw these racegoers watching the band in between races. The Guinness was in full flow but not all of the punters were doing well, as evidenced by the man covering his face with his hand.
Barry Geraghty is interviewed on his way back to the winner's enclosure after winning the Ladbrokes World Hurdle on More Of That. I drew the Guinness stand in the background before waiting for Geraghty to pass to sketch the horse and rider.
A view down the rails between two sets of bookmakers' pitches before the running of the final race of the day, the charity race.
After the races there was a bloodstock sale held in the main parade ring. Something like £1.6 million was allegedly spent on horses - not a penny of which was spent by champion jockey A.P. McCoy, who I drew as he chatted quietly on the periphery of the main crowd. A.P. had a bad fall on Wednesday evening but, as is his style, had regrouped to win the first race on St Patrick's Thursday aboard Taquin Du Seuil.
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