Harry Redknapp admits he is not a fan of the Cheltenham Festival

There will be 220,000 people at this month's Cheltenham Festival, including a fair number of famous racing enthusiasts from other sports, but you will look in vain for Harry Redknapp, even though he is a long-standing owner of racehorses. Speaking on Friday, the Tottenham Hotspur manager gave it as his frank opinion that the race meeting had become "a day out for the nutters". "I don't go to Cheltenham," Redknapp said. "Too busy. It does my head in. People drunk and disorderly and jumping all over you. It's not racing any more." His comments amount to a rare setback for the public image of the Festival, the annual highlight of jumps racing in Britain and regarded by others as a sort of Christmas for grown-ups. But Redknapp's view may have been coloured by the fact that his own horse, Bygones In Brid, which had been entered for a Festival race, was killed on Thursday afternoon in a fall at Taunton racecourse, shortly before he offered this view. Purchased for a reported £100,000 in 2010, Bygones In Brid was seen as a very promising youngster with a future over fences, but he fell at the first hurdle at Taunton and broke his neck, dying instantly. Redknapp, who had made the journey to the Somerset course, described the moment as "a nightmare". "It was a fantastic jumper but, for whatever reason, it just got to the first and I don't know whether the sun was glaring or whatever but it just didn't get off the ground. It had great potential. "So it was a bad day. I got to Taunton, two minutes later I was in my car driving home, minus the horse." Redknapp reported that the horse's jockey, Robert Thornton, "just couldn't believe it. He said he'd schooled in the week and he jumped like you wouldn't believe it. It's only hurdles and he was bred to be a chaser." Even in his moment of grief, Redknapp, who is long odds-on to be the next permanent England manager, was not allowed to forget his status as a famous face. "I had people trying to take a photo with me. I was stood there wanting to cry and they're going, 'Can we have a photo … Come here." In the circumstances, it is not surprising to learn that he will not be returning to Taunton. "Royal Ascot doesn't interest me, either. I'd rather have a quiet day at Wincanton. Fontwell or Wincanton, somewhere like that." Bygones In Brid was probably the best horse to have carried Redknapp's colours, despite failing to win a race under them. Redknapp's other runners have included Arry's Orse and Slick Cherry, twice a winner when he was Bournemouth manager.