'The starter here needs a root up his backside' - Michael O'Leary slams 'bloody nonsense' Cheltenham Festival starts

Gigginstown House Stud's Michael O'Leary labelled the starts at Cheltenham "a bloody nonsense" after the third day of the festival replicated day two with a series of unsatisfactory starts.

Four of the seven races on Thursday began with a standing start. O'Leary urged officials to let them go at the first time of asking.

"The starter here needs a root up his backside," said O'Leary. "At least three races today, they're all coming in in a line. They're 200 yards short of the tape and coming in a little bit fast, but lift the tape and let them at it.

"It's a bloody nonsense. As long as they're all in a line and all moving forward, it doesn't matter if they're going a little bit faster. It's health and safety gone mad."  

The opening Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle was the first false start of the day, which meant the 23 runners then began from a standing position.

Connections of Maughreen labelled the start of that Grade 2 as "farcical" after their mare lost any chance when she whipped around as the tape went up.

Maughreen, sent off at 11-1, turned the wrong way when the starter finally let the runners go, forfeiting many lengths at the rear and left with a mountain to climb.

"It was very hard to watch and we're very disappointed," said James Fenton, spokesman for the Closutton Racing Club. "I wouldn't be one bit happy with the start – they could have let them go the first time and why call a standing start straight after that?

"Why not let them walk back again and come in? Starting a race like that on the bend is just madness. I know you can't change the distance of the race, but if you took the bend out and let them start beyond there, it would make a lot more sense. Yesterday was the same as well. It was farcical."

How the incident unfolded

The Mares' Novices' Hurdle runners line up for a standing startCredit: Racing TV

Maughreen whips around under jockey Patrick MullinsCredit: Racing TV

The runners set off in the Mares' Novices' HurdleCredit: Racing TV

The field approach the first hurdle with Maughreen in last place

Despite not even getting a run for his money, Fenton was keen to look to the future.

He added: "We take it on the chin and the mare is fine which is the main thing. I'm happy Patrick Mullins has minded her because there's a big race coming up at Fairyhouse in four weeks' time and we'll go for that. I'm delighted to see Rachael Blackmore win the race because she's a great friend of my family and to my two little girls. For Henry de Bromhead too, it's brilliant."

Mullins said: "She just whipped around when the tape went up. It was one of those things."

BHA starter Robbie Supple defended the starting procedures when speaking to ITV. He said: "We want them to come in at a walk or a jig-jog if possible and wait until we drop the flag. We raise the flag to invite them to come forward and when everyone is where we'd like them to be, we'll drop the flag for them to go. It's the same all year round, really.

"We've got to keep it fair to the ones who are obeying the rules. If we let them go when they're cantering, they're only going to get quicker, as it has done in the past. We reviewed the starts previously because all of the horses were coming in too fast, especially at the festival and at Aintree.

"The fact is we can't start the race until it's the correct time. When it's a big field of horses, they've got to go back far enough. The idea is when they reach us it's the correct time.

Air Of Entitlement and Rachael Blackmore stay on past Sixandahalf to win the Ryanair Mares' Novices' HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

"In one of the races on Tuesday they were way ahead of time, two of our team advised them that they were ahead of the time and they ignored them and kept coming. We can't start the race too early.

"In our opinion, we've had fair starts. Okay, maybe every horse hasn't got the start they wanted. It's certainly fairer to have them standing in a straight line, rather than ones on the inside strung out a couple of lengths ahead of the others. That's what we're trying to establish and we're just trying to be fair to everybody."

'Why do we need the tape?'

The Jack Richards Novices' Limited Handicap Chase, TrustATrader Plate and Kim Muir also began with a standing start on Thursday. Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Jamie Snowden said it was time to lose the starting tape and have runners line up at a safe distance from the start.

"I would say get rid of the tape," said the Lambourn trainer. "Why do we need it? I'd put a foam line down like in football, ten metres or so before the start. Have them walk to the line and when they cross it they start to jog and that's when you let them go. It's not rocket science.

"The problem with a tape is that when it whips across a horse's face, they naturally step back from it. The stalls on the Flat open forward to encourage the horse to jump but a tape whipping back has the opposite effect. You can get an advantage or disadvantage and that's not right."  

Rob James in the Plate and Will Biddick in the Kim Muir were the only riders to be reprimanded by the stewards on the day, with James suspended for two days for "misconduct" at the start aboard Conflated and Biddick picking up one day for "failing to comply with the starting procedures code" aboard Git Maker.

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'It's like the days of old' - alcohol changes revitalise betting ring on opening two days 

Rachael Blackmore scores on Air Of Entitlement in Mares' Novices' Hurdle as another calamitous start hampers Maughreen 

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