FRANCESCA CUMANI was forced to apologise for a winning Cheltenham Festival owner’s x-rated interview.
One of the big syndicate behind Stayers’ Hurdle hero Flooring Porter let slip with an expletive during the live ITV broadcast.
Betting ring reporter Brian Gleeson was down with the big group of Irish lads before the big race on Thursday.
Gleeson asked one of the owners how excited he was to see the defending champ run.
And he replied: “There won’t be a f***ing cow milked.”
Gleeson had to quickly jump in and say ‘sorry for the language’.
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Cameras then cut to Alice Plunkett in the parade ring, who reiterated the apology by saying: “We’re really sorry for the bad language you may have heard in the betting ring there behind Brian.”
But it was when the footage went back to ITV Racing host Cumani that she addressed viewers.
Cumani, whose dad Luca is a famous trainer, said: “We’re really sorry for the bad language you might have heard – that’s not something we like to hear.
“We try and bring you all the atmosphere around the course but unfortunately sometimes these things do happen.
“Apologies for that.”
But it was all soon forgotten when Flooring Porter romped home at 4-1 to land his owners a cheque for more than £182,000.
Brilliant scenes in the winners’ enclosure showed jockey Danny Mullins being hoisted up on the shoulders of the lads.
And the victory was made all the sweeter by the fact it occurred on St Patrick’s Day.
Ned Hogarty, one of the winning owners from the Flooring Porter Syndicate, said: “The horse was due it, we were due it, the parish was due it and the country was due it.
“Hopefully we can all celebrate and drink a few pints on Paddy’s Day.”
'There's only one Danny Mullins'
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And you can bet they did, as Champagne corks could be heard popping as the horse strode back in.
Cumani’s co-host Ed Chamberlin said there was ‘absolute madness’ around him as everyone celebrated.
Cries of ‘there’s only one Danny Mullins’ and ‘there’s only one Flooring Porter’ rang out.
Flooring Porter is now a two-time Festival winner, a remarkable achievement for a horse who bought from a Facebook post.
Bought for £5000 – a relative snip in the racing world – he was nicknamed Roy after Roy Keane.
That was due to his quirks and slightly temperamental nature.
But trainer Gavin Cromwell has done a superb job ironing all that out – and turned him into a winning machine who has now amassed more than £462,000 in prize money.
