Alastair Down: Kauto v Denman v Long Run was one of those rare and treasured days when everything you hoped for unfolds before scarce-believing eyes

Legendary Racing Post writer Alastair Down has died at the age of 68. To celebrate his remarkable life, we will be republishing some of his finest work, beginning with this piece written in the aftermath of an epic Cheltenham Gold Cup.

This article was first published on March 19, 2011.

Rare and to be treasured is the day when everything you have hoped and yearned to see unfolds before your scarce-believing eyes, but at Cheltenham on Friday an absolute epic of a Gold Cup lifted our sport to heights you might dream of reaching perhaps once or twice in a lucky generation.

There were moments as the riveting three and a quarter miles unfolded when, if you didn’t remind yourself that what was going on out there was the stuff of sweat, stretching sinew, rasped breath and blood roaring in ears, you might have been forgiven for thinking you were watching some beautifully shot but unbelievable film made by some schmaltz-meister such as Spielberg to promote the joys of jump racing.

From the moment Kauto Star laughed at his years and led the field out into the country on the second circuit, the race was already taking glorious flight. I have seen Kauto Star win two Gold Cups but I have never seen him travel so happily round Cheltenham, racing sweet as vintage Sauterne and twice as priceless.

With Kauto Star laying it down from the front and the other big guns all in close order, the watching stands, packed with the passionate, caught the scent of the sort of history they make the journey here to see, and never before has any Gold Cup crowd become so rampantly involved so far from home.

By the top of the hill there were normally sane and sensible men and women baying for their chosen favourite and totally transported by the stuff of racing legend being unwrapped in front of them. And as the race heaved towards its climax, there came a moment on the run to the third-last when just about every one of the tales of glory that this Gold Cup had in its power to tell was still pulsing with life.

At the head of the field pounded three chasing powerhouses, Kauto Star, Denman and Imperial Commander, between them the winners of four Gold Cups, while just off them lay their nemesis – still stalking in the wings – in the shape of Long Run.

Imperial Commander was the first to crack and there they were – Kauto Star and Denman, the 11-year-old box neighbours, hammering away at each other for the lead; two marvellously irresponsible old men out for some mad last hurrah and damned if they were ready to admit that the days of youth were behind them.

Kauto Star would go on to beat Long Run in the King George at Kempton later that year – having also landed the Betfair ChaseCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

The sight of these two slugging it out brought crashing roars of noise from stand and lawn and there were still two fences to jump. But when over 60,000 committed souls are being transported into the zones of the unbelievable you can forgive a shivered timber or two.

Those precious couple of hundred yards when Kauto Star and Denman ran down to the second-last with every gun blazing in a never-to-be-repeated masterclass in greatness welded with courage will stay with us for ever.

Twice Sam Thomas’s whip fell on Denman and that great head went down even lower as he struggled for mastery, the very beau ideal of the staying chaser in full cry. But to his inner Ruby was drawing a magnificent response from the much-loved ally beneath him, as Kauto Star answered his every call in perhaps the greatest illustration that the dual Gold Cup winner is every bit as much about ferocity and fight as he is about foot and finesse. And as the 11-year-olds argued, Sam Waley-Cohen, the Corinthian on a mission, was literally on their tails, the double-barrelled name with both barrels still loaded.

The three of them were in the air together two out with Long Run still fractionally in third and it must have been in that instant as Denman headed Kauto Star that Ruby sensed this epic was not to be his and roared at Sam Thomas: “Go on, go and win!”

But no sooner had Walsh’s shout died in the air than Long Run was upon them and, as he and Waley-Cohen opened up their winning lead, the blazing light Ditcheat has shone on recent Gold Cups suddenly guttered and died as the torch moved on to the next generation.

Denman battled on up the hill which has seen him win one Gold Cup and finish second in three, like one of those old unsinkable battleships whose day has gone. And Kauto Star, out on his feet but unquenchable to the last, hung on for a third place that it would have been a travesty to lose.

And if there were cracked voices among the cheers as the horses came back down the horsewalk, then so there should have been because this was a Gold Cup the sheer theatre of which has only been bettered in the last 30 years by the tremor-inducing triumph of Dawn Run.

The scenes around the winner’s enclosure were the stuff of pure emotion. Kauto Star and a beaming Ruby were the first to return, greeted with a winner’s roar as befits a horse who has twice triumphed here on this day and had somehow managed to do so once more by finishing a mere but magnificent third.

And then came Denman and an ever grateful Sam Thomas, who gets a tune out of the old bruiser like no other man. Something about Denman appeals to the Cheltenham crowd on a bedrock level of unashamed and emotional affection. They just roared their gratitude at him as he came in drenched in sweat and honour, a last blast of heartfelt thanks for the days he has given in this race.

Denman, pictured winning the Gold Cup in 2008, was hugely popular with the Cheltenham crowdCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

And for the winner, there was also mass acclaim. We love those who have served us in times past but here was the new age, six years young and ridden by an amateur sportsman who had done wonders to overcome some far from fluent fencing and timed his run to perfection. There has never been a more popular party pooper.

And never have I known a Gold Cup winner’s enclosure where connections of the second, third and fourth all behaved as if they had won the race. And so sincerely meant it. Time and again the massed faithful on the steppings cheered, laughed, clapped and wallowed in a participatory feelgood factor, the like of which it has never been my privilege to be part of.

An hour later, sitting in my car park Portakabin bashing out the tale of this most fabulous of days, the emotion still washed over me. But tears can be good and on Friday produced some God-given reasons to happily shed a few.

Remembering Alastair Down:

Legendary Racing Post writer and beloved broadcaster, dies aged 68 

Alastair Down: a master conjuror of words and a cherished advocate for racing 

Alastair's love of racing sang from every line - and his ability to tell the story of a race was unmatched 

'He had a gift and an extraordinary one' - AP McCoy, Nicky Henderson and more remember racing hero Alastair Down 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.