"They're only doing it because they know they won't have to pay out," McCoy mocked yesterday, posing with a list of names that reached halfway up the Newbury grandstand – the horses on which he has been beaten in the race.
Israel says an international conference will also give the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, a platform on which to grandstand, rather than engaging directly with the Israelis.
The grandstand stood opposite the tribune on which King Carol and official guests were sitting, among them Prince Regent Paul of Yugoslavia and President Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia, who are on a state visit in Roumania.
She played in front of only about 100 people on the grandstand court, which can seat up to 5,100.
John McGuinness, 40, will today kiss his wife Becky, look up at his children Faye and Kurt in the grandstand, and then attempt to win his 18th TT race on a course on which around 240 riders have died.
The Sepang grandstands are covered with canopies shaped like the leaves of the palm oil trees that fill the plantation on which the track was built, next to Kuala Lumpur's international airport.
Few changes are planned for this year's Festival, since attentions are mostly focused on the construction of a new grandstand, which remains on schedule and will be partly in use for next month's big week.
One Farah supporter, Ian Briggs from Market Harborough, said: "We got grandstand tickets which were £50 each because Mo was competing.
But 23 runs from the penultimate over led to a grandstand finish, which the visitors barely survived.
Gillespie left as Cheltenham embarked on a £45m grandstand development project which is expected to be completed by the time of the 2016 Festival.
