Cheltenham Festival 2000

There was a strong element of déjà vu about the Cheltenham Festival in 2000, with Istabraq and Stormyfairweather returning to Prestbury Park to repeat their victories in the Champion Hurdle and Cathcart Challenge Cup, respectively. Monsignor, who’d won the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 1999, took his record over hurdles to six from six when pushed out to beat No Discount by 8 lengths in the Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle while Looks Like Trouble, who’d turned the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Chase into a procession the previous year, repeated the feat in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, jumping well and coming home unchallenged to beat Go Ballistic by a distance. Mick Fitzgerald, winning jockey on Stormyfairweather, recorded three more victories to become leading jockey for the second year running. Other notable victories included Edredon Bleu in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Bacchanal in the Bonusprint Stayers’ Hurdle and Joe Cullen in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper.