Pulled up after two hurdles - but Cheltenham still shows a great champion the reverence he was owed
Greatest Ever Festival Moments - No. 12
Champion Hurdle ignored with all eyes on Istabraq
When the Champion Hurdle is being run, it feels like everyone at Prestbury Park is glued to it.
The big race on day one, it commands every available pair of eyes, not like the handicaps at the end of the card, by which stage some folk are celebrating vigorously, or like the later days of the week when things are starting to get a bit ragged around the edges. For that race, more than any other, you can feel how absorbed everyone is in tracking the field, watching for the first of the fancied horses to show any flicker of weakness.
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Published on inGreatest Ever Festival Moments
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- Tears flow as heroic Honeysuckle does it for Jack with her own fairytale ending
- 'I can still hear the roars and shouts' - Dawn Run gets up to unleash unfettered pandemonium
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