How the huge heavyweight landed a knockout blow - with the help of a masterful ride

Greatest Festival Rides – No. 11
Ron Barry (The Dikler, 1973 Cheltenham Gold Cup)

There's a very famous photograph – well, famous among those of us who love a picture-perfect steeplechaser – taken by Ed Byrne, of a horse called Pendil jumping a fence at Kempton with Richard Pitman on board.

He's taking off from just outside the wings of the fence and you just know from looking at it that he's going to clear it by a mile and probably go on and win the race with his head in his chest (I think it was actually from one of his two King George successes in 1972 and 1973). When I first saw it, at the age of ten or 11, I was mesmerised, awestruck that such a creature should exist and be on public view.