How motionless magician JT McNamara conjured a remarkable win over a gallant rival

Greatest Festival Duels - No. 10
Rith Dubh v Timbera, 2002 National Hunt Chase

John Thomas McNamara was, among his many gifts, a master of distraction and diversion. That's the main thing we learned from the National Hunt Chase of 2002, the finest example you could hope to see of a tricky horse being conned into winning a race without quite realising he was in one.

Both horse and jockey had been quietly building their reputations for years, tending in opposite directions, one gathering admiration while the other shed it. McNamara was a horseman of rare talent; Rith Dubh was a quality animal with zero interest in fighting for anything, or of being told what to do.