Tony McCoy's fury at surprise Cheltenham protest by 'idiot'

By Marcus Townend for the Daily Mail Racing Correspondent
Reporting from Cheltenham
Updated: 07:16 EST, 18 March 2011

Disaster was narrowly averted at the Cheltenham Festival on Thursday when a protester ran on to the track and just avoided colliding with 15-time champion jockey AP McCoy on Ryanair Chase winner Albertas Run.

Angry jockeys, led by Ruby Walsh, remonstrated with the protester, who was waving a poster bearing the face of the race sponsor’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary.

The incident is connected to a blogger’s website which criticises the Irish budget airline.

Enlarge   Near miss: Andrew Lynch on Rubi Light narrowly avoids the track invader

Near miss: Andrew Lynch on Rubi Light narrowly avoids the track invader

Seconds after the incident, McCoy told a BBC 5 Live interviewer: ‘It’s a good job he didn’t bring me down. I would have knocked him out.’

He later added: ‘I had my head down and only saw him out of the corner of my eye. There’s always one idiot.’

Victory: McCoy celebrates victory on Albertas Run

Victory: McCoy celebrates victory on Albertas Run

The man, who had climbed through the running rail and was wrestled to the ground by police, was later charged with a public order offence and fined £80.

Edward Gillespie, Cheltenham managing director, said: ‘We put a security person on every possible exit in the championship races but we had no intelligence suggesting we had reason to do that for the Ryanair Chase.

‘We do get good intelligence from the police if something might happen. Nobody got hurt and the last time someone got on the course was a streaker about 20 years ago.’

O’Leary, a leading racehorse owner who had two winners at the Festival on Wednesday, said: ‘If some idiot wants to try and make some publicity for himself, let him.’

The Festival concludes on Friday afternoon with the feature Cheltenham Gold Cup.

McCoy rides 9-1 shot Kempes. Reigning champion Imperial Commander, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, is the 9-2 favourite to defend his crown.

Nicky Henderson’s woeful week continued when his Lush Life was fatally injured in the Pertemps Final.

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