Fifteen went to post for the 2018 Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup, but this was in effect a two-horse race from start to finish, with Native River leading virtually all the way to deny the favourite, Might Bite. It was a duel worthy of the name, a brutal examination of equine spirit with the pair never flinching in conditions that favoured the winner and that the runner-up hated, but for which his trainer made no excuses. In defeat, and with the trainer Nicky Henderson’s hopes of a unique Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup treble gone, the esteem in which his Might Bite is held can only have risen. Native River had not quite captured the imagination of the public in the same way, his…

Source: The Times March 16, 2018 17:05 UTC