Declan Queally and Nico de Boinville appeared to resolve their differences on Thursday after an angry and controversial exchange of words before the start of the first race on Wednesday.
Queally lodged a complaint with the stewards that he had received verbal abuse from De Boinville, some of which was of a racial nature, when he lined up against the running rail shortly before the field was due to set off for the Grade One contest.
The two riders shook hands in the weighing room at Cheltenham, however, and told ITV Racing afterwards that their issues have been resolved.
“All sorted, it was the heat of the moment and all is forgiven,” Queally said. “Best of luck to Nico in the future.”
De Boinville said: “I appreciate Declan and wish him the best,” before adding thank to the former jockey, Davy Russell, for intervening to sort out their dispute.
While the two jockeys were insisting that matter was closed, however, the British Horseracing Authority will continue to collect evidence before deciding next week whether to take its inquiry any further.
“The BHA are dealing with it, so we’ll go from there,” Queally said later. “It was heated down there, we’re sportspeople and as was said this morning, tempers can rise. But we’ll see what the BHA say.
“I was where Nico wanted to be and unfortunately what happened, happened. Everyone would like to put this stupid matter behind them. If I hadn’t been caught after the race [by ITV Racing’s interviewer, Matt Chapman] when blood was still up, there might have been nothing about it.
“There was effing and blinding, there was a racial comment thrown, I’ve told the BHA but I’d prefer to enjoy my day.”
The starting procedures were an issue again when the Mares’ Novice Hurdle, the Jack Richards Novice Handicap Chase and Pertemps Hurdle final all failed to get away first time, and the British Horseracing Authority said on Thursday morning that it will conduct “a full review” into the starts following the festival’s final day tomorrow.
“It has been a tremendous two days of racing so far at the Festival,” Brant Dunshea, the BHA’s chief executive, said, “but we share the frustrations of jockeys, trainers and punters regarding the starts.
“We have full faith in our teams of starters, many of whom are former jockeys, and the data shows that away from the festival, our starting procedures work well.
“However, there are clearly several factors unique to Cheltenham which make the starting of races extremely challenging, despite the measured changes made ahead of this year in collaboration with the jockeys and racecourse. We will therefore carry out this review ahead of the next Festival.”
The state of the going for Thursday’s card, the first of two days on Cheltenham’s New course, was also in the spotlight after Willie Mullins’s decision to scratch Fact To File, the hot favourite for the Ryanair Chase, from the card’s feature event.
Mullins was strongly critical of the ground, which was officially described as good, good-to-soft in places, in a subsequent interview with Racing TV.
“If the ground is going to be like this, we’re not going to bring them,” Mullins said. “We were promised watering, and I’m not sure the watering we were promised has been done. I’m a little bit annoyed about that.
“I know the weather forecast hasn’t been kind but very few people complain about too much rain and a bit of watering. But this isn’t good for the type of horses we’re bringing over here. I know it suits some horses but for the majority of the good, big, National Hunt horses, we’d like it a little softer.”
In Fact To File’s absence, Nicky Henderson’s Jonbon set off as the 2-1 favourite for the Ryanair, but he could not match the finishing kick of last year’s runner-up, Heart Wood, as Henry de Bromhead’s chaser came home 10 lengths clear.
Another difficult day for the punters had opened with the 40-1 success of White Noise in the Mares’ Novice Hurdle and there was another big upset in the Grade One Stayers’ Hurdle, as the 11-year-old Home By The Lee, at 33-1, stayed on strongly to beat Ballyburn by a length and a quarter.
Kabral Du Mathan, at 4-1, appeared to be travelling much better than his rivals on the run to the final flight, but Dan Skelton’s six-year-old, who was stepping up to three miles for the first time, emptied completely on the run-in and finished only fourth.
The third day concluded with a win for Ask Brewster in the Fulke Walwyn/Kim Muir Handicap Chase for amateur riders. The winner is trained by Cath Williams, who took over the licence at her Welsh stable after Evan Williams, her husband, was found guilty of assaulting a dog walker on their land with a hockey stick last week.
