Colin Tizzard’s Native River has outstayed Nicky Henderson’s Might Bite to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
In a competitive renewal of the race, Henderson’s inmate was sent off a 4/1 favourite and was ridden like one by Nico De Boinville.
Richard Johnson was keen to stay upsides the market leader on Native River and the two set a relentless gallop for the 15-runner field to aim at.
Those others runners couldn’t live with it.
Willie Mullins’ Djakadam travelled well in behind but a couple of jumping errors and, perhaps, his age put paid to his chances in the end.
Anibale Fly stayed on gamely to claim a third under Barry Geraghty.
This was a tale of two horses though, coming down to a battle of wills between the two front-runners.
The Tizzard horse is a lover of soft ground and eeked out a magnificent win up the straight, with both horses walking over the line having been honest to a tee the whole way ‘round.
The dominance of Irish raiders, then, did not extend to the sport’s blue ribbon event.
“We’ve been watching the Irish win everything for the last two days and thought we had no chance,” said an emotional Colin Tizzard after the race.
“The Cheltenham Gold Cup is everything,” he added.
Jockey Richard Johnson, who last won the winner of the race 18 years ago, was effusive in his praise of his mount on the day.
“All he wants to do is please you,” he said.
The feature race of the week didn’t disappoint onlookers at Prestbury Park as they were treated to a classic encounter between two stars of the Steeplechasing game.
