The first day of the Cheltenham Festival is traditionally the highlight of Charlie Brooks's year, the racehorse trainer told Daily Telegraph readers in his column yesterday. "The happiest moment of my year is about three hours before the first race," wrote Brooks, who will not be able to attend given his arrest this morning, along with his wife former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, as part of the police investigation into phone hacking. Readers, though, know what he will be missing. "Queuing behind Alan Brazil for my, but not his, first pint of Guinness of the meeting. 'Not feeling too good mate,' he observes every year. And have never had any reason to doubt him. 'I'm in so much trouble,' he will add. And I will nod, in the full knowledge that by the end of the meeting I'll be in about as much trouble as he is at the beginning of it," Brooks wrote. Let's hope the TalkSport presenter has one for Brooks, who was planning a "five-stop strategy" on his way home from Cheltenham, including the Horse and Groom in Lower Oddington, the King's Head at Bledington, the Plough in Kingham and the Chequers at Churchill. "Preceded by a quick detour to the Hollow Bottom in Twiston Davies. I'm bound to run into Brazil somewhere," he added. Given this morning's events, Brooks may have to change his strategy.
