Cheltenham Gold Cup horse drank a Guinness after walking into a packed bar

Irish horse Hewick will be gunning for Gold Cup glory at the Cheltenham Festival on Friday, and might just head to the bar to celebrate if he gets it.

The eight-year-old gelding will be a 33-1 outsider for one of the sport's most famous races, but has already been cemented in folklore regardless of how it goes over the most renowned three miles, two furlongs, and 70 yards in racing. Trained by John 'Shark' Hanlon, he won a speculative punter a massive £140,000 last October at the American Grand National.

And when he returned home to County Carlow in Ireland, he really was given a traditional welcome. Indeed, few pub goers baulked when Hanlon led the horse into 'The Pint Depot' to continue the celebrations.

Supporters had already gathered in anticipation that Hanlon would fulfil a promise to walk the horse into the pub, and remained true to his word.

But his treasure simply being clapped and patted wasn't sufficient for Hanlon, who then took the party a step further.

In a Twitter video that soon went viral, the trainer casually asks the bar staff: ''Can I get a pint of Guinness now?" The footage, shared by the official @jhanlonracing account, has since racked up more than 564,000 viewers.

Customers were left amazed when the barman duly obliged, pouring a pint of Ireland's finest. And Hanlon then raised the glass to the mouth of his horse, who somewhat snorted the Guinness without quite managing to finish the pint in one go.

Racing fans lapped up the incident and the horse will no doubt be at home this week, with more than 220,000 pints of the black stuff expected to be sank.

Indeed, punters can pay for the 'world's most expensive' pint this week. A combination of Guinness and English sparkling wine will set drinkers back £20, with the new mix dubbed 'Club Black Velvet'.

The Festival got underway on Tuesday, with Honeysuckle winning her final race among the highlights. Jockey Rachael Blackmore had to fight back tears afterwards as she paid tribute to Jack de Bromhead, the son of the horse's trainer Henry, who died last year.