Alastair Down's archives: the great writer recalls Coneygree's glorious victory in the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup

On Friday Cheltenham will honour Alastair Down by naming the press room in his honour. Alastair, who will be at Cheltenham with friends and family, has been entertaining Racing Post readers for many years and last week we asked you the readers to pick your favourite Down piece, with the most popular choice being Coneygree's Cheltenham Gold Cup win, first published following that memorable festival success in March 2015.

Somewhere upstairs John Oaksey has been hard at work with the celestial watering can in recent days and, on an afternoon of elation and exultant emotion, Coneygree produced a fabulous performance to give jump racing its greatest result imaginable when landing the Gold Cup for Mark and Sara Bradstock.

This was a triumph for jumping's grass roots. The Bradstocks are pleasingly eccentric because at their ten-horse yard in Letcombe Bassett, from which Captain Tim Forster sent out three Grand National winners, the interests of the horses comes first with the humans a very distant second.

And yesterday this humble but high-class operation sent a novice to Cheltenham with just three runs over fences behind him to give his syndicate of enthusiasts a triumph over the fearsome battalions of Ricci and Gigginstown.

In all honesty I thought the days when tiny yards won any race at Cheltenham, let alone the Gold Cup, were dead and gone.

And this wasn't some inexplicable act of god a la Norton's Coin – this was victory for a novice of vast promise whose connections had the courage and sporting instincts to bypass the seemingly easier RSA and throw their hat into the Gold Cup ring.

Time and again professionals this week have dismissed Coneygree being run in the Gold Cup as a "mad" decision. The Bradstocks are pleasingly if benevolently mad, but yesterday proved there is method in their madness.

Coneygree leads over the last in the Cheltenham Gold CupCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

And my god Coneygree was an inspiring sight bowling along in front for Nico de Boinville and nothing less than flawless at his fences. De Boinville measured the race brilliantly and kept up an inexorable gallop that pulled the heart of this field. Bradstock made the point that Coneygree has "an incredibly high cruising speed" and that is what won him this Gold Cup.

This was no 'soft lead', this was hard labour with no remission. Barry Geraghty said "we were flat out all the way" and Sam Twiston-Davies added he "could not believe the gallop they went".

And as Coneygree piled it on down the hill, the stands and packed paddock caught the first whiff of a famous victory and the best part of 70,000 people for whom being here is a matter of faith opened their throats to roar the underdogs on.

Pushed along from the third-last Coneygree had to chisel into bedrock as Djakadam and Road To Riches loomed in his wing mirrors.

But he is not only a class act, he has that vital streak of steel in his soul and he simply slugged on through whatever pain was assailing him and refused to yield. Close enough if good enough, Djakadam and Road To Riches were still bang there and inching back.

Seven times up the runin De Boinville's whip slammed down and Coneygree answered every call, although it must have been the stuff of instinct by then and at the very death he seemed to pull out a final fraction more as he passed the post with the grandstands and lawn in happy riot.

Rarely have I known a Gold Cup win greeted with such joy. Everywhere folk were beaming and saying what a brilliant result it was.

The Bradstocks have restored the enduring dream that lies at the heart of jump racing - that still despite mega-money and yards with hundreds of horses, trainers at the very grass roots with virtually no resources can, through skill, endless graft and sheer instinct for the steeplechaser, win the greatest race of all.

And in the winner's enclosure it was great stuff. I found my cheeks wet from Chicky Oaksey's and have to admit to adding a few of my own.

Of course many a thought was for John Oaksey, who did not live to see this day, but Chicky, his representative on earth, is one of jumping's greatest treasures and universally loved.

As for the Bradstock family - this was their hour when a thousand cold mornings and never spending a brass washer on themselves bore glorious fruit.

Nico de Boinville and winning trainer Mark Bradstock with the Gold Cup

Sara is simply a triumph over adversity. She has a tracheotomy and serious lung issues but she gets through more work than a galley slave, and despite having to block the hole in her throat with her finger in order to talk she has plenty of strong opinions trenchantly expressed.

She said: "It's because my father was the greatest that we have had this luck." It is not luck Sara, it's work and you truly are your father's daughter.

Mark said: "My wife is not very well but she's magic." But Bradstock himself runs on one functioning kidney and daughter Lily, 19 next week, who led up Coneygree is a genuinely brave soldier as a kick from a horse left her with a nightmare nerve-related leg problem that required several operations.

Son Alfie, happily sound in wind and limb, is a top-class event rider and has played a massive part in the making of Coneygree. You can't overestimate the role he's played. Some team, some family.

By all accounts the Bradstocks' home is not likely to be used for a photo-shoot for Homes and Gardens. It looks like the burglars have just popped in and trashed the place and it would be no surprise if the Gold Cup gets used by a terrier for eating its dinner.

This has been a week of wonders. Willie Mullins ushered in a new age with a record eight victories including horses of spectacular promise.

AP was given a spectacular roaring send-off by a crowd grateful for his long service both to themselves and the sport.

And they kept the best wine to the end with Coneygree. Hard-charging novice who has lifted his stable up on to the pinnacle.

Festival 2015 – an unforgettable vintage with which to drink the health of those who carry the names of Bradstock and Oaksey. Real jumps people with a horse who yesterday reinjected us with the heady elixir of dream the ultimate dream.

Read this next:

'He could take high rank over fences' - Paul Kealy with five novice chasers to follow this season 

Patrick Mullins: 'He isn't pretty, he isn't flash, he isn't Constitution Hill. But right now, they have the same number of Champion Hurdles' 

Kauto Star: the extraordinary talent who became the benchmark for sheer undiluted quality 

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