The Cheltenham Festival is upon us again. Mark Anthony recounts the tragic story of the greatest mare ever to grace jump racing`s biggest stage.

Most of the focus at the Cheltenham Festival falls on the Gold Cup, the showpiece event on the final day of the meeting and understandably so, as the race is, by common consent, the Blue Riband of steeplechasing, its fame transcending the sport itself. However, the Festival is not just about the steeplechasers. Hurdlers, generally faster but racing over smaller obstacles, also have their own championship event to aspire to, in the form of the Champion Hurdle, run on the first day of the meeting and this is a race that is as enthralling a spectacle in its own right.

Only one horse in history has managed to win both these prestigious events: the brilliant Irish mare Dawn Run and to this day, her feat remains a marvel, the more so when one considers the contrasting demands that the two races place on their contestants.

The Champion hurdle, run over 3300m, is effectively a speed dash around Cheltenham and, in theory anyway, is a showcase for the fastest horse in National Hunt racing. The Gold Cup, over 2000m further, is a stamina-sapping test of endurance, which requires combatants to jump 22 fences over two circuits of the course and still have something in reserve to enable them to cover the final uphill climb to the winning post once the final jump has been taken. It defies logic that a horse could have the necessary attributes to win both these races, and Dawn Run`s feat in becoming champion in both disciplines remains a supreme achievement in the annals of National Hunt racing.

Dawn Run was a daughter of Deep Run, who had a rather unusual claim to fame for a top-class National Hunt sire: back in 1970, racing on the Flat, he had run second to the mighty Nijinsky, when that greatest of Irish colts was taking his first steps towards immortality.

Owned by Charmian Hill, Dawn Run apparently got her name from the early-morning training runs taking by Mrs Hill`s daughter, a keen athlete. Mrs Hill herself was a formidable figure: an accomplished amateur rider, she had engaged in a high-profile battle with the Irish authorities who had withdrawn her riding licence due to her age (she was by this time in her sixties).

Dawn Run certainly seemed to mirror her owner`s strong personality: throughout her career, she would be known for being a difficult ride, very temperamental and not always willing to co-operate with her rider. In a sport dominated by male horses and where great mares are few and far between, Dawn Run was well equipped to take on the best. There was nothing of the shrinking violet about her, as she developed into a tall, rangy specimen, with a distinctly masculine cast to her.

Dawn Run showed plenty of promise early in her career in her native Ireland and in March 1983 made her way to Cheltenham Festival for the first time, where she ran second in the Sun Alliance Hurdle. The following month she went to Liverpool for Aintree`s Grand National meeting and turned in remarkable performances by winning on the Friday and then running a creditable second to reigning Champion Hurdler Gaye Brief the following day. It was a satisfactory end to her first season and showed that she was destined for bigger things.

Her second season fully delivered on the promise of her first, as she won eight of her nine starts during the 1983-84 term. She turned the tables on Gaye Brief in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton, returned to Ireland to land the Irish Champion Hurdle and then claimed the biggest hurdling prize of all at Cheltenham in March 1984. Not satisfied with this, her connections took her across the Channel, where she won the French equivalent as well, thus achieving the astonishing - and unique - feat of a Champion Hurdle victory in three different countries, another record that is unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

Having swept all before her as far as hurdling was concerned, it was time for her camp to consider new challenges and they decided to school her over the much more formidable fences of steeplechasing. Dawn Run duly won her very first race over fences in November 1984, but then picked up an injury and had to be laid off for over a year.

Returning after a 13-month absence in December 1985, she looked as good as ever, winning two steeplechases in quick succession. An ambitious plan was then unveiled, one which would see her head for the biggest prize of all: the 1986 Gold Cup. On the face of it, the move seemed an unrealistic one. Nobody doubted her sheer talent, but it takes considerable experience to succeed in a race of this calibre, especially given the stiff demands of the Cheltenham course and its fences. Dawn Run, with a mere three runs under her belt, was a mere novice in the context of steeplechasing and she surely needed to have another season of gradually working her way through the ranks, before she could contemplate taking on such a monumental task.

But her owner was adamant and Dawn Run was sent to Cheltenham in January to get a feel for the fences and prepare her for the Cup two months hence. Despite facing a seemingly easy task against just three opponents, the race turned out to be a disaster as she misjudged a jump and fell, dislodging her jockey Tony Mullins, son of her trainer Paddy. The race seemed to confirm the worst doubts of her detractors, proving that she simply wasn`t ready yet to take on the big guns over the big fences, but nevertheless, Mrs Hill stood firm and her charge duly lined up at Cheltenham for the Gold Cup on 13 March 1986.

Remarkably, Dawn Run was sent off favourite at 15/8 despite her poor preparation for the race. This appeared to be based more on emotion and Irish fervour and patriotism, rather than logic. After all, she was taking on a strong field of proven steeplechasers with several seasons under their belts. Best of her rivals was the magnificent Wayward Lad, a three-time winner of the sport`s second-biggest prize, the King George VI Chase, along with several other big prizes. However, for all his class, he had an Achilles heel: he was at his best up to 5000m and in his three previous Gold Cup attempts, had always been found out right at the end, the extra 300m proving just beyond him. In addition, he was getting on in years, and as a 12-year-old, would find it difficult against some of his younger rivals.

The race also included Forgive `N Forget who had won the race the previous year, as well as the two horses who had followed him home that day. Two other serious runners were Combes Ditch and Run And Skip, both whom boasted much better big-race form than Dawn Run over fences and who had been at the top of their game so far that season.

As if the quality of her opposition was not enough of a concern, there was also the fact that she had never raced over the 5300m of the Gold Cup before. Could a horse that had been fast enough to win a Champion Hurdle really have the stamina to last this gruelling trip?

To add further flavour to an already fascinating contest, there was controversy over the jockey bookings for the race. Tony Mullins was deemed too inexperienced for the occasion and Mrs Hill had booked Ireland`s champion jockey and talisman, Jonjo O`Neill for the ride - a move which left Mullins` supporters much aggrieved as they felt he had done nothing wrong in his previous rides aboard the mare.

All told, the odds looked very much against Dawn Run as the eleven runners set off on their journey that afternoon. The mare, a habitual front runner, set off into an immediate lead but was soon joined by Run And Skip who also preferred those tactics. Dawn Run`s volatile temperament seemed to come into play here and she appeared distinctly displeased that another horse was challenging her for the lead. Losing focus, she made a mistake at the third fence, failing to jump it cleanly, but thankfully stayed on her feet and then settled down for a comparatively decent spell of jumping.

However, they were going at quite a serious pace and there was a very real danger that she and Run And Skip would cut each others` throats up front, exhausting themselves and setting up the race for their rivals who were running more conservatively early on.

At the fourteenth fence, a water jump, Dawn Run made a serious mistake: although she cleared the obstacle, her hind legs landed in the water, costing her precious momentum. She survived this and managed to get back on terms with Run And Skip, but there was more drama as she made another mistake at the eighteenth.

With only four fences to jump, the emotion and anticipation of the crowd was reaching fever pitch and Dawn Run`s supporters must have experienced a sinking feeling: could she seriously be expected to maintain her gallop all the way to the line? Some of the more experienced runners in the chasing pack had been saving their energy early on and they were starting to close in ominously.

At the third-last fence, Run And Skip held a marginal lead with Dawn Run now appearing to flag under pressure and Wayward Lad and Forgive And Forger moving in ominously for the kill.

The noise from the crowd was now rising to a crescendo: the runners took the turn into the home straight and only two fences and that tortuous uphill climb to the wire stood between them and Gold Cup glory. Dawn Run rallied and jumped backed into the lead over the penultimate fence. The effort seemed to finish her off: despite the roars of the huge Irish contingent, she seemed to have nothing more to give as Wayward Lad and Forgive And Forget stormed past her.

Jumping over the last fence, Forgive And Forget seemed to crack, and Wayward Lad had claimed a clear lead. Now, he only had to maintain his gallop and the Gold Cup would finally be his. As for Dawn Run, she was plugging on gallantly for a certain third place. Her chance had surely gone and while her supporters would be disappointed, it was no disgrace, given her inexperience, to be beaten by two horses of proven class.

But there was one final, incredible chapter still waiting to be written before the result could be called. Wayward Lad was starting to struggle as his own stamina, always suspect over this trip, started to give out. Dawn Run seemed to sense this and it had a galvanising effect on her. Whether in response to jockey O`Neill`s urgings or to her own bloody-minded competitive instincts, she pulled herself together for a final, almighty effort. Like a tigress smelling blood, she went after Wayward Lad and started to reel him in.

How she found the courage and will to launch her final bid, after her furious exertions earlier in the race, we`ll never know. To this day, watching the the replay of the race induces a surreal feeling, as one sees the amazing denouement unfold but cannot quite believe it. Inch by inch, Dawn Run clawed her way back up that hill. Wayward Lad still had two lengths on her. Then one. Now it was down to a half-length. With the winning post virtually within touching distance, and Cheltenham engulfed by a deafening wave of noise, she got her head in front of the luckless Wayward Lad and pulled away from him to win perhaps the most thrilling Gold Cup ever run.

Pandemonium then broke out in the stands and it is generally accepted by most chroniclers that the scenes of sheer joy and, indeed, delirium that followed had never before been witnessed at Cheltenham. The Anglo-Irish rivalry has always been a key feature of the Festival and the biggest race of all had just been won by a horse and rider who were considered genuine racing icons in the Emerald Isle. The mare was mobbed by an army of adoring supporters as she made her way  back to the unsaddling enclosure and it took an age before the normal post-race formalities could be carried out.

This was not a moment for gloating, however: what the crowd had just witnessed cut across national boundaries and regardless of where one`s loyalties lay, one simply had to acknowledge one of the greatest performances in the history of any sport and a memory that could be treasured for a lifetime.

Amidst all the euphoria, one has to spare a thought for the unfortunate Wayward Lad. For the fourth consecutive year, he had jumped the final fence in contention to win the Cup, and yet again, his stamina had been found out. At least, though, he was able to bow out on a high note: the following year, at age 13, after another failure in the Gold Cup, he ended his career on a winning note at Aintree and went on to enjoy a happy retirement, living to a ripe old age and remembered as one of Britain`s best-loved and most accomplished steeplechasers.

For Dawn Run, there was to be no such happy ending. Three months after she had reached the pinnacle of the sport, this greatest of mares was dead, killed in a fall while attempting a second win in the French Champion Hurdle. It was a dreadful end to a glittering career and her death raised all kinds of awkward questions about the terrible price sometimes paid by the wonderful equine athletes who give so much, so selflessly for our enjoyment and exaltation - questions which we, as lovers of the sport, are usually too cowardly to face up to, seduced as we are by the thrill of  great moments such as the day she clinched the Gold Cup.

The story of Dawn Run embodies the very best and very worst of racing and it combines all the elements of a Greek tragedy. At its heart lies a supremely talented heroine, imperious and strong-willed, destined to bring untold joy to so many, yet also destined for a life that was to be as short as it was glorious.

Fittingly, her efforts were recognised with a statue at Cheltenham, an honour which had previously only been accorded to Arkle, the greatest steeplechaser of all time and the mighty Golden Miller who had won no less than five Gold Cups. Her place in history is secure and her achievements on the track have ensured that her fame will endure through the ages and she will be long be celebrated as an adornment to the sport she graced with such distinction.