Gary Pallister, a lieutenant of Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United team in the 80s and 90s, made a surprising revelation ahead of this year's Cheltenham Festival.
'My favourite memories of Fergie and horse racing is that if he found out you’ve been to Cheltenham Festival, he'd drop you!' Pallister told Cheltenham Racing.
'He wasn’t into Cheltenham racing then. He didn’t play golf and he didn’t like horse racing. Now he loves his golf and his horse racing and owns horses.
'Back in the day, he wasn't OK with the lads going off for a day at the races, but that’s all changed and he’s obviously been involved for quite a while now with his good friends from Manchester and had some good success there.