Setting sights on more dizzy heights with Arkle ace Altior

Cheltenham has a malevolent streak and a nasty habit of bringing those it has allowed to fly close to the sun come crashing down like Icarus.

Ruby Walsh can make the course look no more taxing than lounging on a favourite sofa but he has taken some X-certificate falls there that have cost him plenty of time off and a spleen.

Back in March 2015, Nico de Boinville won that murderously hard-run but joyous Gold Cup on Coneygree when he was still a claimer but the Cheltenham gods put his name in the book and struck back this season on November 12.