Goshen agony provided the defining moment of a festival full of tight margins

The Cheltenham Festival began with a photo-finish and ended the same way. Physically, there was next to nothing between the first two horses in both races. For those connected with the winners, compared to those left in the spot reserved for the second, that next to nothing triggered emotions surely a vast canyon apart.

Perhaps never before has there been a festival in which the margins were so tight, not simply judged by how many millimetres separated one nose from another, but also in a much wider sense.

Sport is frequently fought out over fine lines. One participant, player or team ends up on the right side of that line. Someone else is less fortunate. The gap between victory and defeat, sorrow and joy, pleasure and pain, can be just a whisker apart. There is sometimes a hare's breadth separating triumph and despair. On Friday, there was despair in the Triumph.