'Pure panic': Pipe and Scudamore tell the tale of Bonanza Boy's finest hour

Winning strategies are invariably easier to invent in retrospect than they are to formulate in advance. When a race has unfolded and victory has landed on the doorstep, what could be simpler than to explain away every stroke of luck and quirk of fate as the righteous fruition of some cunning plan.

Sometimes, though, even success isn't enough. There are some victories that plainly happened in spite of best efforts rather than because of them, and in those circumstances the wisest course of action is usually to own up and take the money.

Even now, 30 years on, with the path back to the facts overgrown by the brambles of time, Peter Scudamore can't quite bring himself to claim credit for the remarkable winning run of Bonanza Boy in the Racing Post Chase of 1989.