Cheese wedges, bad errors and Czech aces: 25 years of Cheltenham's cross-country

When Cheltenham unveiled the cross-country track 25 years ago, very few could have imagined a 171-rated jumping great like Tiger Roll would spend a large part of his career negotiating its hedges, banks, ditches and the peculiarly named cheese wedges.

The course's mix of complex and obscure obstacles was introduced to attract a wider variety of horses from across Europe and, like Europe, it has divided opinion ever since. In that time it has had a variety of problems – some of which are just as extraordinary as the obstacles.

In 2002 three jockeys were handed ten-day bans after jumping the wrong side of a fence, while in 2004 the German-trained Registana, with victory at the Open meeting all but assured, was ridden up the wrong straight by Peter Gehm and disqualified.