Horse Racing: Cheltenham racecourse officials expect to be able to tell a group of Manchester United fans in the next few days whether they can stage a protest at next month's Festival meeting.
Track officials have been heavily involved in the consultation process this week. Edward Gillespie, Cheltenham's managing director, said yesterday that talks had taken place with JP McManus, the leading racehorse owner and major Manchester United shareholder.
"There has been progress, but I am still working on what we said would be our agenda, that we would be contacting the people who are requesting the facility by the end of this week," he said.
The group, United4Action, want to stage a protest on the Thursday of the meeting - Tote Gold Cup day - against McManus and Coolmore supremo John Magnier's involvement at Old Trafford. Gillespie went on: "I have spoken to all our board, have had more than one meeting with our police, and I shall be discussing options with them again before the end of this week.
"I met up with Jonjo O'Neill and JP McManus last week and I made sure that JP understands the options facing us and the consequence of each of those options. I have also spoken with Coolmore and the chief executive at Manchester United, but the main thing is for everybody to realise what the consequences of any decision would be.
"The discussions have been very helpful and we have tried to get everybody necessary involved in the consultation process. We still have four weeks to the Gold Cup (on March 18th), but we are still baffled how Cheltenham racecourse gets into what is a private matter and people's views about it.
"The safety of the horses and jockeys and the security of the racegoers remain our number one priority and we will make sure that whatever decision we make, we will able to manage the consequences."
Meanwhile, Rayshan took the first step towards justifying his 140,000 guineas price tag when scoring on his hurdling debut for trainer Howard Johnson at Musselburgh yesterday and in the process earned a 33 to 1 quote for the Triumph Hurdle..
The four-year-old was the first of two winners for the County Durham-based handler as he put several sketchy jumps behind him to score by 11 lengths.
Graham Lee never had his mount far from the pace in the two-mile ForthOne Juvenile Novices' Hurdle and left the well-backed Humid Climate toiling in second after kicking on at the final flight. "I have been easy on this horse and he can only improve from this," said Johnson.
"He will come on 14lb from the run. Graham said he jumped better late on and he has got gears." Rayshan, who now carries the colours of big-spending Graham Wylie, had his final start for John Oxx in last summer's Irish St Leger when coming home last of the six runners.
