Racing: Best Mate forced to battle but McCoy leads the accolades

King George VI Chase: Cheltenham Gold Cup winner joins an illustrious club and earns a rest until Festival time in March

Best mate made himself a little more exclusive here yesterday. He made himself that rare beast, a winner of both a King George VI Chase, an achievement he managed by a length and a half from Marlborough, and a Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Best Mate did so on sodden Sunbury turf which was an anathema to his free-flowing action and he did so by showing that drive and determination are as much a part of his fabric as athletic brilliance. And he is not yet eight. This horse has it in him to become a racing folk hero.

To those around the horse he is already an exemplar. "I would marry him if I could," Tony McCoy, yesterday's replacement for Best Mate's regular but suspended jockey, Jim Culloty, said. "He is the classiest staying chaser I have ever ridden.

"He is a tough horse, a class horse, and he is still learning. He is learning as much as he is improving. He is getting very professional. He is the model racehorse."

Model is a good word for Best Mate, who has the poise and looks to accompany his engine. As he circled the Kempton parade ring the overriding sense was of healthiness. He nodded all the time. Yes, he seemed, to be saying, I'm the one.

But as this was a King George field, Best Mate could not be the only figure easy on the eye. Flagship Uberalles looked fit to burst and Florida Pearl too was an imposing character, his tail tied up. The comedic element was supplied by Native Upmanship, a victim of the high-stepping condition stringhalt, who looked as though he was trying to avoid something nasty on the floor of the paddock every few steps.

In the race proper, it was the suede shape of Bacchanal which initially came to the fore. There was no madness about the pace, however, as Florida Pearl, Douze Douze and Best Mate himself fought with their competitive inclinations close to the pace. The 11-8 favourite clamped his head to one side in mild resentment at the early waltz.

The first, in fact, the only injection of pace, came down the far side for the second time. It lasted until the race ended. Best Mate was the main instigator.

"He jumped so well down the back that he jumped himself there," Terry Biddlecombe, husband of the trainer, Henrietta Knight, said. "I told Tony that whatever he did he should not disappoint the horse. He made ground where it mattered." Knight was not among the 18,000 crowd (10 per cent down on last year). She was supervising Edredon Bleu's success at Wincanton.

The trainer missed a quite breathless final mile as Best Mate struggled to repel all boarders. The seven-year-old jumped low and fast but he never got away as he first collided in mid-air with Douze Douze and then had Florida Pearl and, finally, Marlborough, nipping at his heels.

Despite his fatigue, Best Mate was again perfect at the last, a leap which determined the result as Marlborough just connected with the top of the fence and lost momentum. There has been no harder race run by Bacchanal, and few by any other horse, as Mick Fitzgerald's mount came home third, a place in front of Florida Pearl.

Best Mate returned a considerably more battleworn figure than the sleek animal we had seen 15 minutes earlier and the rigours of this 52nd King George confirmed that we are unlikely to see him again until party time in the Cotswolds in March. Then he will try to go where no other horse has trod since L'Escargot over 30 years ago and win a second Gold Cup. Coral are biggest priced, at 5-2, that he will manage it.

"For guts and determination it's as good a King George as I have ever seen," Biddlecombe added. "This horse is the most amazing mover. He uses everything.

"He is the most complete athlete. But you must understand that he is still a young horse and you don't want to burn good horses out do you? You've seen him today. That's enough until Cheltenham isn't it?"

Tony McCoy, for whom this was win No 201 of the season, believes that here at last may be an animal with the fortitude as well as skill to be able to return and claim a Blue Riband. The only problem is that the multiple champion jockey will not be on board to savour such a delight. That honour will go to a man who was out hunting in his native Ireland, a man who did not even watch the race until yesterday evening. Jim Culloty will have viewed with mixed emotions.

"If ever a horse was going to do it again at Cheltenham it's him," McCoy said. "This horse has got it all. He's the best horse in the country, but was not at his best on this ground. It's disappointing for Jim, but, fortunately for him and unfortunately for me, he will be on in the Gold Cup. He doesn't have to improve. If he does I might have to arrange a kidnap for Jim."