Sanguine Bowe takes defeat in his stride

RARELY can so many people have wanted one single result in a horse race than the multitudes who willed Limestone Lad to win the Bonusprint Stayer’s Hurdle.

It was not to be, however, and there was nobody more disappointed than Michael Bowe, the man who lives, sleeps and eats with the ’Lad’ and who has trained him to a phenomenal 35 race victories.

Given that disappointment, Bowe was remarkably sanguine about what had happened and he vowed that, everything being OK, Ireland’s most popular horse would return to Cheltenham next year for another crack at winning a Festival race.