'I hardly had a bet all day' - McManus plays down involvement after four-timer

JP McManus stole the show at the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday with a 1,019-1 four-timer but the former bookmaker confessed he had hardly had a bet all day.

His week started perfectly when Epatante landed the Champion Hurdle on his 69th birthday on Tuesday and it hit another gear on day two of the festival, with Champ, Dame De Compagnie, Easysland and Aramax obliging.

"I just take it one race at a time and hope for the best. I can't really complain about today," said McManus, who is the leading owner at the festival with 64 winners.

"I hardly had a bet all day. I just cheered them home – I didn't want any extra weight on them."

Reliving the RSA: how Champ defied reality to surge past Minella Indo and Allaho

McManus relied on familiar ally Nicky Henderson for his first two winners, with Champ landing the RSA Insurance Novices' Chase at 4-1 and Dame De Compagnie justifying 5-1 favouritism in the Coral Cup.

It looked as though his fortunes had taken a turn for the worse when 2-5 favourite Defi Du Seuil was overturned in the Champion Chase, with Barry Geraghty denied his third success in a row for the owner.

'That wasn't him' - team mystified by Defi Du Seuil's Champion Chase flop

The McManus train was restored to its tracks in the cross-country when Easysland, trained by David Cottin in France, upset the odds to beat Tiger Roll, before Aramax won the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.

Click here for full results and replays

Punters to the fore

As the festival reached its halfway point, punters pulled ahead in their annual battle with bookmakers after a string of well-backed winners obliged, including Envoi Allen in the Ballymore.

"Envoi Allen got the ball rolling for favourite-backers in the first, Champ came from the clouds to land a knockout blow to us in the second, before Dame De Compagnie landed a monster gamble," said Coral spokesman David Stevens.

Watch Envoi Allen's demolition of the Ballymore field

"Defi Du Seuil's shock defeat at odds-on gave us some respite but Easysland's defeat of Tiger Roll was not the positive result we might have expected it to be. Aramax was another popular winner and Appreciate it would have been a costly winner of the bumper, but by then the damage had already been done.

"We're down but history reminds us there's still all to play for, although punters head into Thursday with full pockets."

Paddy Power were more upbeat and spokesman Paul Binfield said: "We were looking at a horror movie after the first three results, but unbelievably Defi Du Seuil and Tiger Roll got beat, which was a massive turnaround. The bumper became important but Appreciate It losing meant we've had a near-miss and the books are up."

Read more:

Dreamland for Henderson as dazzling Dame struts to Coral Cup triumph

Tiger Roll beaten in Cross Country Chase as Easysland takes down festival hero

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