Cheltenham Festival: Buveur D'Air retains Champion Hurdle title

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Buveur D'Air is pushed all the way by Melon
Buveur D'Air, right, was pushed all the way by Melon
Cheltenham Festival
Venue: Cheltenham Racecourse Date: 13-16 March
Coverage: Full coverage on BBC Radio 5 live; continued on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text updates on BBC Sport website
Buveur D'Air retained the Champion Hurdle title with a thrilling victory from Melon at the Cheltenham Festival.
The 4-6 favourite held on by a neck under jockey Barry Geraghty to give record-breaking trainer Nicky Henderson a seventh victory in the race.
Buveur D'Air was passed by Melon on the uphill finish before battling back to triumph from the 7-1 shot, with 25-1 chance Mick Jazz in third.
The winner's stablemate Charlie Parcs set a searing pace in the testing conditions and was followed by 2015 winner Faugheen before they both faded.
Footpad was a brilliant winner of the Arkle Chase after Ruby Walsh steadied his Willie Mullins-trained mount following an early blunder.
And jockey Lizzie Kelly scored her first Cheltenham Festival victory as 5-1 favourite Coo Star Sivola, trained by her stepfather Nick Williams, landed the Ultima Handicap Chase.

'One of the best rides I've ever seen'

Barry Geraghty celebrates victory with his wife, Paula
Barry Geraghty celebrates victory with his wife, Paula
Buveur D'Air became the sixth horse to win the two-mile Champion Hurdle more than once, but the seven-year-old was made to battle for victory.
Geraghty always had his horse in the slipstream of the early pacesetters, but it was Paul Townend on the well-backed Mullins challenger Melon who posed the biggest challenge.
The two hurdlers went head to head up the home straight, roared on by a bumper crowd, before Buveur D'Air got the better of the tussle.
"That was a great ride from Barry Geraghty," said jockey Tom Scudamore, who was summarising for BBC Radio 5 live.
"You talk about being a goalhanger in football and the key to that is knowing the positioning to go and do that.
"It would have been very easy for Barry to allow Buveur D'Air to jump the last and push too hard but he didn't and he has earned his keep. It was one of the best rides I've ever seen."
It was a seventh Champion Hurdle for Henderson, and also for owner JP McManus. The Festival's all-time leading trainer has previously won with See You Then (1985, 1986, 1987), Punjabi (2009) and Binocular (2010).
Henderson, recording his 59th Festival victory, said: "It was a brilliant race. They were two very brave horses with two brave jockeys. This was a proper race and he showed his class."
Geraghty was ruled out of last year's Festival after puncturing a lung and breaking six ribs in a fall.
"I missed last season and it was a long year, but I can't complain. I thought he was coming to beat me, but my fella is battle-hardened and tough as nails," said the jockey.
Analysis
by Cornelius Lysaght, BBC horse racing correspondent at Cheltenham
I think, ideally, we like our champions to bolt up, and this was very tight as Buveur D'Air joined the likes of Hardy Eustace, Istabraq, See You Then and Sea Pigeon as a back-to-back champion.
His trainer quite reasonably put the narrow margin down to the quality of Melon, plus that after three easy races this was the first time the seven-year-old had really been tested - and, of course, he did come through it.
There will be talk of retirement for former Festival stars Faugheen (6th) and Yorkhill (pulled up), and if that's the decision, they go out with heads held high.

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