Treble for Cheltenham's Best Mate
CHELTENHAM, England (Reuters) -- Best Mate emulated Arkle and joined horse racing's greats on Thursday by winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup for the third year in succession.
Superbly ridden by Jim Culloty, the 8-11 favourite battled home ahead of 33-1 outsider Sir Rembrandt with third place going to 20-1 shot Harbour Pilot.
"He's tough and was brilliantly ridden," said trainer Henrietta Knight. "It is the biggest relief in the world. I thought we were beaten coming to the last."
Best Mate is now a fully paid-up member of an elite band of chasers to win the Gold Cup at least three times.
He follows in the hooves of Arkle (1964-66), Cottage Rake (1948-1950) and Golden Miller who triumphed five times between 1932-36.
At the age of nine, Knight's horse probably has two or three more years at the top so Golden Miller's five victories look well within his scope, injuries permitting.
Best Mate, who had hugged the inside rail all that way round, found himself boxed in at a critical stage with two fences to jump.
With Paul Carberry refusing to yield on Harbour Pilot and Culloty screaming for room it looked for a few moments that the champion might be deposed.
But Culloty succeeded in pulling Best Mate away from the rail and managed to jump the final fence clear of Harbour Pilot.
The champion then had to call on all his reserves to battle it out to the line, holding off the late surge of Sir Rembrandt by half a length with one and quarter lengths separating the second and third.
Culloty, ecstatic, gave a three-finger salute to the vast crowd, underlining the brilliant hat-trick of successes by one of the sport's most popular performers.
He shrugged off the incident with Carberry, reflecting: "This is a Gold Cup and there is no quarter given. He battled on really well. I am so relieved. We were a little slow over the last which did not help."
