How Comedy had the last laugh over Bula – and Fergal O'Brien's festival routine

Cheltenham's greatest giant-killings

Comedy Of Errors beats Bula
Champion Hurdle, 1973

Amid the mayhem of Cheltenham in the 1970s, when bottomless ground was frequent and upsets common, punters were always fortified by the sight of an odds-on favourite trained by Fred Winter.

Bula was just such a horse, and he bore down on the 1973 Champion Hurdle as demonstrably the one to beat. He was attempting a hat-trick, having won by eight lengths the previous year and by four in 1971. At that stage he’d won 21 of his 24 races and was duly sent off at 5-6 ahead of Captain Christy at 85-40.