Steve Hearle is 77, he ran his own bookmakers for 19 years and he still works part-time for the Tote.

This time of year is always special for Hearle and as the cheers have rung out around Prestbury Park over the past couple of days, it has brought the Cheltenham Festival memories flooding back.

Hearle ran his shop – Stephen Hearle Turf Accountants – in Portland Square in Cheltenham, setting up the business in 1985.

It was hard work, of course, but there were many good times too, chief among them Garrison Savannah’s remarkable Gold Cup success in 1991.

The Jenny Pitman-trained and Mark Pitman-ridden horse was owned by Autofour Engineering, a company based in Alstone Lane in Cheltenham, and it was a win that catapulted the horse’s owners Malcolm Burdock, Roger Voysey and John Davies onto the front pages of the newspapers.

“That was an amazing day,” recalled Hearle. “He won by a short-head. I remember Peter O’Sullevan’s commentary, Garrison Savannah had led for most of the second circuit but the French horse, The Fellow, was challenging all the way up the hill.

“O’Sullevan said, ‘The Fellow’s going to get up’, but he didn’t, he had to correct himself!”

Garrison Savannah, a 16-1 shot, was a hugely popular winner in and around Cheltenham, of course, and Hearle continued: “I remember joining the owners for a drink in the Pump and Optic in Hewlett Road after they’d won, I was drinking out of the Gold Cup, it was a marvellous night.”

Hearle has always been a big fan of National Hunt racing.

“I remember watching Arkle beat Mill House in the Gold Cup in 1964 as an 18-year-old,” he said. “It was run on the Saturday because the weather had been bad. There were only four horses in the race and the crowd was only about 20,000. The Cheltenham Festival is much bigger these days.”

So who does Hearle think will win this year’s Gold Cup?

“I think Noble Yeats will be in the shake-up,” he said. “I think he’s one of the best Grand National winners we’ve seen for quite a while.

“He was third in the Paddy Power Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham over three miles and a furlong at the end of January. He ran up the hill really well and was catching the two in front of him.

“He just needed the race to be a bit longer and the ground to be a bit softer.”

Noble Yeats, who is trained by Emmet Mullins, is around 8-1 for tomorrow’s showpiece race.