Harry Redknapp’s love of horse racing is as well known as his passion for transfer bargains. Redknapp has been at the Cheltenham Festival watching his beloved horses in action. 

However, when he was a manager, he was less inclined to let his players attend the iconic festival, according to ex-Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara. O’Hara said: “The first Cheltenham Festival I went to was when I was at Spurs.

“I went there with the Spurs squad where [teammates] Robbie Keane and Jonathan Woodgate [are] big on the races. We have a team bonding day and we went on our day off, which was the Wednesday, organised a chopper [to get there]…

“I remember getting to this abandoned airport and the chopper was in the middle of the airport and we’re all racing around in our Porsches and Bentleys.

“We went and had a great day…we’ve then come in on the Thursday and Woody has organised it again for a select few. He pulled us all in at the start of the training session and said: ‘I’ve got wind that a load of you are going to Cheltenham again today, I’m not having it, you’re not going, don’t even think about it’.

“We had the training session, everyone has gone back into the dressing room, Keano and that are saying: ‘What are we going to do?’

“Woody’s gone: ‘Give me five, I’ll go and have a chat with him.’ I’ll never forget it – he’s gone in and said to Harry: ‘We’ve sorted it all out, we’ve got the chopper taking us there, we’re not going to go mad, it’s going to be a chilled one, not crazy, we’re all coming back straight after, in the cars, straight home.’

“Harry still wasn’t having it and Woody’s gone: ‘If I organise another chopper for you and your mates, do you want to come in the box?’

“Harry had a think about and went: ‘Yeah, I’ll have a bit of that!’ So, straight after training, all of a sudden, Redknapp’s in the chopper and we’re all at Cheltenham on the Thursday, he’s sat in the box in with the hospitality….I was thinking, hold on a minute, he’s just said we’re not allowed to go and he’s in here with us!”