Racing: Beauty of a beast bred to be the Best ever

Cheltenham afterglow: History in safe hands as Knight and Biddlecombe groom a champion for the Arkle annals

Near Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare, they once chanced upon gold. Maugham's Gold, it was called. Today, in that verdant, lush terrain in the west of Ireland, the Costello dynasty prospects for precious equine talents. They have discovered six to date, Cheltenham Gold Cup victors all. One could just emulate the mighty Arkle. Best Mate, he's called.

As Jim Culloty steers his charge into the Cheltenham winners' enclosure through a throng whose uplifting chorus of approval could just about raise the dead, Tom Jnr and Tony, two of the five sons of the godfather of Irish horse-traders, stand anonymously on the periphery. They revel in a vicarious pleasure.

For four years after father Tom bought a particular foal at Tattersalls (Ireland) National Hunt sales for 2,500 guineas in 1995, they had observed him develop into an imposing specimen. They had schooled him on Irish point-to-point courses and then, one day, in February, 1999, ran him in a race at Lismore. Tony Costello partnered him.

Trainer Henrietta Knight and her husband, Terry Biddlecombe, were present purely by chance. "It was pissing down with rain, a right miserable day, and we had owners with us, looking at another horse we'd come to see," recalls Biddlecombe. "But I couldn't take my eyes off this other fella in the parade ring. There was something about his outlook. It reminded me a bit of Arkle. I said to Hen, 'I've seen a lovely horse. This is one we've got to have'."

As it transpired, the object of Biddlecombe's interest was pulled up before three out on the desperately heavy ground. He ran again soon after in a two-horse race, and won. Immediately Knight sent a fax to prospective owner Jim Lewis, the retired managing director of the Silentnight bed company: "I have seen the horse of my dreams. He's so good, I would train him for nothing."

Recalls Biddlecombe: "We bought him virtually on the day he won because there were about five people queueing up behind us, trying to do the same." None of those involved will say just how many punts crossed hands. Six figures, certainly. "It wouldn't be right to say what price," says Tom Costello Jnr. "But anyway, he's cheap now..."

It demonstrates the allure of National Hunt racing: the sheer egality of it. "There's been a lot of unusually bred Gold Cup winners, which is marvellous," says Tom Jnr. "It gives everyone an equal chance, really. You're looking for a horse that's athletic, with an aptitude for jumping, with a nice attitude. Generally, when we buy a horse we like to think it'll end up 16.2 hands at least, something that potentially will carry 12 stone over three miles. Best Mate is 16.3. As a four-year old he wasn't an abnormally big horse, but he's kept growing."

He smiles when you suggest that they must regret selling. "No, you're delighted, you always follow their progress, and this is the ultimate. It's our business to keep buying them and selling them on. Obviously, it's something of a gamble. You don't predict anything at the age we had him, but he was always a lovely horse."

Never out of the first two in his 15 starts, and with a King George and a Cheltenham Gold Cup already to his name, Best Mate came to this year's Festival to defy history. But then, so did Michael Hourigan, with Beef Or Salmon, a talented novice chaser with a similar background.

Beneath the social niceties, the fires of competitiveness burn fierce. Reputations are created here, but just as easily chipped. As Michael Dickinson, responsible for the "Famous Five", having trained the first quintet past the post, led by Bregawn, in 1983, opines: "To be honest, I love Cheltenham as a spectator. But it's hell as a trainer. There's a lot of pressure. You've got to have a winner here, or people will think you haven't done well. I was talking to a lot of the trainers, Pipey [Martin Pipe] and Henrietta, and I said, 'You all look like shit, you know'. They say, 'It's only a horserace'. But it's not a horserace, it's the Olympics."

Wisdom flows like the beer tap in the Guinness Village here. Everyone has an opinion, some more expert than others. The black and the bubbly stuff make philosophers and seers of us all. The Irish multi-millionaire gambler and businessman J P McManus, who wanders through the winners' enclosure like a genial monk after the victory of his Baracouda in the race preceding the Gold Cup, possesses genuine insight. He responds to the hyperbole which suddenly attends the previously criticised young French jockey Thierry Doumen, partner of his horse: "When you've won, you've always done right".

Culloty could not be faulted in the Gold Cup itself. Biddlecombe will attest to that, and the three-times champion jockey is wig-and-high-court when it comes to handing down such judgements. "I said to Jim, 'Get him switched off early', and he was absolutely brilliant; poetry in motion. Nobody could have executed it better.

"Jim's matured; he's so good on big occasions. Jockeys go through a stage. I've done it myself. There have been times when you could shoot the bastard. [He immediately says he doesn't mean it, but you know that.] I know A P [McCoy] has ridden Best Mate twice, but Jim knows the horse; they blend. It's wonderful to see."

Biddlecombe's final words as the Irishman mounted? "Be lucky, have a good ride and get round safe." Best Mate was as secure a ride as a rocking horse as the partnership flowed over the fences for an imperious triumph, the first to claim jump racing's finest honour two years in succession since L'Escargot in 1971. Contrary to last year, there was not a flaw in his jumping. Even the bluff Biddlecombe had to dab away tears. "I don't care what they say. Real men do cry."

When they had finally escaped the tumult of well-wishers and the chorusing of "Best Mate", football supporter style, from owner and Aston Villa fanatic Lewis, it was back home to West Lock-inge Farm, near Wantage, and nothing more lavish than a Chinese takeaway for racing's Felix and Oscar. Celebrations tend to be sedate affairs for these two non-drinkers. The following day Terry and Henrietta were up, as usual, before five, sharing the feeding of their 70-plus horses. Then a parade of the conquering hero for the photographers.

"Matey" is rather more concerned with picking at grass than concentrating. Under Knight's direction he poses like a catwalk model. "Yes, he knows he looks well. When he walks, he's got a great swagger to him. Bit like a woman, isn't he?" comments the bucolic Biddlecombe, to whom political correctness is a yet-to-be-mastered theory.

"Patience with a good horse is essential, and Hen is very good at that. When you get a good horse it don't need rushing." He pauses and surveys his wife. "Henrietta is the most amazing lady. Dedicated. Attention to detail. Quite extraordinary. I adore her." He laughs at his own sentimentality. "The odd couple, eh?"

Comparisons between Best Mate and three-times Gold Cup victor Arkle are inevit-able. "I rode against Arkle at Kempton in the King George on Woodland Venture," recalls Biddlecombe. "I think I would have beaten him, but overjumped the second last. Arkle won. Apart from Woodland Venture, the others I rode against him weren't very good. They made Arkle look brilliant." He adds: "Times change and tracks change. The fences are different. But this horse, in a Gold Cup, jumped immaculately. Didn't put a foot wrong. Arkle used to gallop through two or three. All I will say is that next year will answer all our questions."

We tend to forget Best Mate is only eight, still young for a steeplechaser. Next year Beef Or Salmon, a year younger, will be a more potent threat. This year, though, his presence did not unduly concern the Best Mate team.

"He never worried us," says Biddlecombe. "But what happened [Beef Or Salmon's early fall, followed by the death of Dorans Pride in the next race] was very unfortunate for Michael Hourigan, because he's a great friend."

The respective fates of the stables on Gold Cup day are a microcosm of the Festival, a sporting occasion when the ever-attendant possibility of tragedy serves to accentuate those rare, and special, moments of glory.

Best Mate biography

Best Mate (IRE) 8-y-o, bay gelding

Foaled: 28 Jan 1995. Sired by: Un Desperado (Fr). Out of: Katday (Fr), a Miller's Mate mare.

Owned by: Jim Lewis. Trained by: Henrietta Knight. Breeder: Jacques van't Hart. Regular jockey: Jim Culloty.

Number of races: 16 (won 11, placed 2nd five times). Debut: 14 November 1999 at Cheltenham (1st of 10).

Career prize money: £687,353.

Major victories: Cheltenham Gold Cup (2002 and 2003). King George VI Chase (2002).

Quotable quotes: "He's a bit special. Terry and I adored him when we saw him win a point-to-point in Ireland, and we were determined to have him" – Henrietta Knight, 14 November 1999.

"Just look at him. He thinks he's Arkle" – Knight, October 2000.