RYEDALE racing enthusiast Noel Bulmer is looking forward to having his first runner at next month's Cheltenham Festival.

Bulmer, who runs the Pride Of Yorkshire Racing Club, will spearhead the fan club for his namesake, Noel's Pride, who is due to line-up in the Pertemps Hurdle Final, staged on the opening day - March 11 - of the biggest and best National Hunt fixture in Europe.

"I've been to the Cheltenham Festival half a dozen times as a spectator, but to have a runner there will be magic," said Bulmer.

He added: "There are 15 people in the club and all 15 of us will be going to Cheltenham. It's the first time we've ever had a full house at the races, but this is an occasion not to be missed."

Noel's Pride, trained at Norton by Malcolm Jefferson, has been an excellent flag-bearer for the Pride of Yorkshire gang, having already won seven races and accumulated a whole host of placed efforts.

Bulmer, from Kirby Misperton, had been looking forward to seeing him run at Newcastle last Saturday, only for that meeting to fall foul of frost.

"The idea is to give him another race somewhere, before Cheltenham, but the weather is playing havoc with meetings at the moment, and time is fast running out," he said.

Despite the strength of the opposition, Bulmer is optimistic about the chances of Noel's Pride finishing in the money at the festival, in a race which carries a total purse of £60,000.

"The trip of three miles and one-and-a-half furlongs will suit him, and so will the uphill finish," he said. "You never know. He might get a place, and if he did, it would be marvellous."

Updated: 10:08 Wednesday, February 19, 2003