Huge crowd welcome Gold Cup hero War of Attrition.

By Robert Pratt, PA Sport

Crowd figures were up on each of the four days at the Cheltenham Festival despite the wintry temperatures with 232,983 racegoers attending the meeting, which represents a new record.

Friday's crowd came to 67,512, up from 66,767 last year, and managing director Edward Gillespie said: "It has been great that people for the last four days have been going round saying how wonderful it is to be here. That is what the place means to people.

"It has been a very difficult season for everybody but it is terrific that prize money has been well distributed at the Festival.

"There have been some great results, dreams accomplished and some sadness - that is the Festival."

The loss of the Jonjo O'Neill-trained Buck Whaley in the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle brought the number of equine fatalities over the four days to nine.

"I am very sorry for those people who lost their horses here," Gillespie added. "We are aware that we are very much in the spotlight and yesterday was as difficult as I can remember. We thought we were over significant loss of horses - it had not been on the agenda in recent seasons.

"Once again jump racing has proved that it is in excellent shape and we look forward to welcoming people back on March 13, 2007."