Perfect couple Frost and Frodon add warmth on a day for the die-hards

In weather conditions familiar to anyone who has rounded Cape Horn in a bathtub, it was a day to hail the burgeoning brilliance of Bryony Frost and bid a well-earned farewell to the Cheltenham institution that has been The New One.

Frost and big-race winner Frodon are hand in glove made for each other and their victory, gutted out from the sharp end under the steadier of 11st 12lb, was a blast of joyful heat on a relentlessly perishing afternoon.

Frodon is bonkers bold and his jumping varied between superb and spectacular. And the woman on top is not just one of the best over a fence among the current crop of jockeys, but among the finest of the decades your correspondent has been watching them chase steeples.