Bottom back on top: the Cotswolds icon ready for another Gold Cup party

It was almost ten years ago that one of the Hollow Bottom's greatest booze-ups began, in the wake of Imperial Commander's Gold Cup success, and if reports are to be believed some of those most heavily involved in the proceedings finally got home last Tuesday. It was that kind of a do: epic, legendary, spanning an epoch of its very own in shindig folklore.

"Infamous," is how Jade Holland Cooper describes this historic Cotswolds occasion, with no hint of disrespect. "I heard it went on for a week."

The festivities began a matter of minutes after Paddy Brennan had steered the mighty beast to a surprise success over those great public favourites Denman and Kauto Star, and the choice of venue was a given, bearing in mind that it sat a mere stone's throw from winning trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies's yard, not to mention the fact that he used to own the place in partnership with his old mucker Peter Scudamore.