the new one best performance in defeat ..

Agree. Thought Sam did a great job on him. Hope he can do it next year.

Any Currency connections might argue their case for best performance in defeat...and Champagne Fever too.Ditto Southfield Theatre.Throw in the perennial Festival unfortunate Get Me Out Of Here and the Gold Cup runner up On His Own and you have 5 horses where connections could claim they might well have won given one stride less or one stride more.

Fantastic racing.

just felt the horse turned up ready for the job , but lost it to a faller  , came up the hill , jockey gave it a lot of time to get itself together , but mostly a lost cause in defeat  ..

Most impressive in defeat for me was Smad Place. I didn't fancy him at all before but he's converted me into a fan. I didn't like his profile, ex flat horse, hadn't placed in a grade 1 or 2, had spent 3 years hurdling, but wow, obviously nobody told him about the trends.

He took it up 3 out and the front 2 pulled miles clear of a well fancied classy horse like Ballcasey. He really wanted to win that race, stretching his neck out grinding all the way to the line and just bumped into a really good stayer imo. I'm not saying Smad Place will win a Gold Cup or anything, but I hope he wins Alan King a grade 1, next season.

From being a horse that had no chance on the trends in the RSA, he'd be a decent trends fit for the King George! 7yo, French bred and a 2nd season chaser placed in the RSA.

He's the right colour for the race too.