The special breed of festival favourites who kept coming back for more

BIRDS NEST
Six tries at the Champion Hurdle without success

They say trainer Bob Turnell went to his grave still baffled that Birds Nest never won a Champion Hurdle, and Lord knows the man tried his best. Six times he took the gifted chestnut in search of the two-mile crown and six times he left frustrated, which was a far cry from their outings to Newcastle at the start of each season, where Birds Nest was only too happy to oblige, landing the Fighting Fifth on no fewer than three occasions, missing a fourth only through disqualification.

At Gosforth Park, the son of Entanglement seemed quite possibly the pick of the golden generation of hurdlers in the late 1970s; yet at Prestbury Park he earned himself a reputation as a frustrating underachiever on the far fringes of that great band of equine brothers.