‘Fresh as paint’ Best Mate basks in adulation
Only hours after landing the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup for the third time, he was strutting his stuff for the cameras in front of the media and a crowd of well-wishers who braved heavy rain and a howling gale to see their hero.
And if the strain of holding off the challenges of Sir Rembrandt and Harbour Pilot up the Cheltenham hill had been felt by the nine-year-old, it certainly wasn't showing.
Trainer Henrietta Knight was delighted to report her charge "as fresh as paint."
"He has just got an incredible temperament," she said as 'Matey' posed in the paddock, totally unfazed by the constant flashes of cameras all around him.
"He loves being the centre of attention because he knows what a star he is. The amazing thing is that there's not a scratch on him this morning.
"We won't put him into the field yet because he will need two or three weeks to wind down first.
"What people don't realise when they knock us for only running him three times a year is how very, very difficult it is to get a horse of his calibre supremely fit on the day. The constitution of a horse cannot withstand constant pressure.
"You have got to take time to let the horse down after each race and then gradually bring him back up again.
"He is very fresh now but if we raced him again without giving him enough time to recover, then he would still be showing the marks from Cheltenham he'd be flat."
It is for that reason that Best Mate will not be going to Punchestown later this season, but an exact plan as to where he will appear during the next campaign is still under formulation by connections.
"We won't go to Huntingdon again (where he was beaten by the ill-fated Jair Du Cochet last November)," Knight said.
"But we need to find something suitable for him at that stage of the season that is over three miles or maybe slightly shorter.
"I suppose we could go back to Exeter for the Haldon Gold Cup, as although it is only over two and a quarter miles he does like the track.
"Maybe somebody will help us find a race or put one on for him.
"Then probably we would go back to Leopardstown again for the Ericsson before going back to try for a fourth Gold Cup.
"I don't know how bad it will be, trying to win it again. It was bad enough yesterday. I was really feeling the pressure. If I looked ill it was because I felt ill.
"It was only when I finally got to bed at about 12.30 that I was able to relax."
