IN NEED OF SOME FESTIVAL LOVE

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Blazing Bailey - each-way hero.

By Will Hayler

With hindsight, I suppose it was a bad idea for payday to fall during Cheltenham week.

Maybe the fact that my confidence was so high today was something to do with the fact that I arrived with my pockets bulging.

They bulge no more.

Given the chance to back half-a-dozen horses in the Jewson, I would have opted for none of the first four.

Having laid Racing Demon win and place, the Ryanair wasn't a bad result, but I really didn't fancy Taranis and in a way I am disappointed that he was good enough to win.

As a race, the Ryanair seems to fill a need that isn't really there. Next year it will no doubt attract another small-to-medium sized field of handicappers who are too high in the weights but not good enough to win a Grade One.

Maybe if I'd backed the winner I'd feel different. But I didn't.

I didn't fancy Black Jack Ketchum, but I didn't fancy Inglis Drever either.

My each-way bet on Blazing Bailey got the return that the horse's bravery deserved, but Overstrand was never travelling or jumping and the opportunity to lay him off in running that I was hoping for never arose.

Having backed the second and third in the Racing Post Plate, I then switched to multiples for the National Hunt Chase and tried some exacta combinations leaving out Gungadu.

I had the 33-1 winner Butler's Cabin, but I paired him up with Not Left Yet, Nine de Sivola and Miko de Beauchene who managed the remarkable feat of all coming to the grief in unison at the second-last fence.

The good news is that the rent will get paid tonight. I backed Material World and Adamant Approach each-way in the last and they were kind enough to finish second and third, meaning that I am going home with something.

Yet I still can't help but feel a bit hollow about the third day of the 2007 Festival.

I have little to show for the high hopes I brought to the course and a change of luck - or maybe of mindset - is required if things are to turn around tomorrow.

I could never fall out of love with the Festival. It gets me out of bed, it fills my dreams, it keeps me coming back for more.

Tonight I shall lie in the bed looking at tomorrow's form, just as I have done for the past three nights. My devotion is not in question.

But why won't it love me back?