Bookmakers erased the memory of 12 months ago as punters took a real battering on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival.

The victory of the well-backed 7-2 favourite Brave Inca apart, the layers had the best of the battle throughout the afternoon.

Big-priced winners featured in three of the six races, with the Smurfit Champion Hurdle falling to 33-1 Hardy Eustace and other races going to 40-1 and 50-1 shots.

Results were in sharp contrast to last year's proceedings, when overall at the meeting favourites took 13 of the 20 races.

"It was a terrible start when Brave Inca won (in the Letheby & Christopher Supreme Novices' Hurdle), but it all went uphill from there," said bookmaker Paddy Power.

"We would have got back some of the money from last year today and Well Chief (in the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy) was a huge result for us. All the Irish were on Kicking King and the English on Thisthatandtother, but McCoy saved the day.

"There was a massive gamble on Keepatem in the last, a real typical Irish plunge. He was backed in from 11-2 this morning to 7-2 on course (started at 4-1), so it was another massive result for the bookies."

Bookmakers left the course beaming from ear to ear after Jonjo O'Neill's Creon sprung a 50-1 shock in the closing Pertemps Final.

Ladbrokes were also more than happy with today's results, with spokesman Balthazar Frabicius saying: "It is 1-0 to the bookmakers after day one.

"We were on the back foot early on when Brave Inca came home, but thereafter there can be no complaints."

Arkle hero Well Chief had been backed ante-post with the firm, with one punter landing a bet of £2,000 at 33-1.

However, Fabricius insisted the win "did us a big favour", adding: "We now make Pipe 1-2, with Nicholls at 6-4, for the trainers' title."

On the exchanges, Betfair reported that the Smurfit Champion Hurdle had seen them register a new record total for matched bets of £3,227,514, with Hardy Eustace matched ante-post at odds as big as 649-1.

On course totepool drew turnover of £2,891,629 - an enormous 28 per cent increase on the corresponding day last year.

A record placepot pool of £642,000 returned a winning dividend of £2,381.