An Irish teenager who was inspired to write a song after his visit to the Cheltenham festival has become a YouTube hit, raking up over half a million hits.

Mark Boylan (13) from County Offaly wrote “The Festival” as a tribute to one of the world’s biggest race weeks.

After the video was posted on YouTube two weeks ago it quickly spread through the racing community. Racing legend Tony McCoy even tweeted about it saying: “I ain’t no Simon Cowell, but how good is 13 year old Mark Boylan’s song about the Cheltenham Festival?”

Boylan was flown to London by the Racing Post to record the song recently which is set to be released through the papers website as a charity single to help injured jockeys.