'He was electric and we got 66-1' - when Flat stars lit up the Champion Hurdle

The Champion Hurdle has changed.

These days it is a jumps race dominated by horses we know only as jumpers. That might sound like a statement describing the obvious, but not so long ago things were different. The sport's supreme hurdling championship was one in which Flat stars regularly ran. They also regularly won.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of a Cheltenham triumph for one of the most famous of all Flat hurdlers. In 1992, the festival's opening-day highlight was captured by a novice running for only the fourth time over jumps. His name was Royal Gait and his jockey, Graham McCourt, was one of two riders sporting the maroon and white silks of Sheikh Mohammed. The other, Richard Dunwoody, was aboard the winner from two years earlier.