Anxiety vanishes as Might Bite follows up gruelling Gold Cup with stunning win

A great racehorse is not forged in easy, mismatched fights, mere exhibitions of control and preeminence, but in the blood and thunder of punishing races which test the fabric of an animal's character.

Might Bite had just one of those in gruelling conditions at Cheltenham, where he and Native River went at it hammer and tongs in what was not so much a race as a private duel, both combatants draining the reservoirs of stamina and courage to produce one of the epic Gold Cup rivalries.

Even though he found Native River impossible to overcome, that was a race that proved to the world that Might Bite was no shirker liable to duck out when the chips were down, as he had almost done the previous year in the RSA Chase, and no chasing dilettante afraid of a bit of soft ground, as many punters dismissed him.