Teaforthree and pizza for the team – how to celebrate a Cheltenham winner

Eyewitness tales

Britbet managing director Nigel Roddis was in charge of the T437 syndicate, in whose colours Teaforthree claimed the National Hunt Chase in 2012

We'd had the race in our minds for a while but I especially remember AP McCoy getting off the horse when he won at Chepstow in mid-February and saying JT McNamara ought to ride him in the four-miler. He basically picked up the phone and told JT, so excitement started to build.

As usual the Tuesday night ended up in the early hours at the Beehive pub, but the day really started at 10.30am when I wanted to get there to see him arrive because I'm very emotionally attached to the horse. He's such a lovely, big stamp of a horse and a lovely character.