Cheltenham 2012: Hunt Ball's walk in the park raises the Festival roof

Hunt Ball was not the shortest-priced winner on day one but his success in Tuesday's final race could be called the most crowd-pleasing, thanks to his wildly enthusiastic and very likeable owner, Anthony Knott. The roar that greeted them as they entered the winner's enclosure matched that for the Champion Hurdle winner two hours before. Knott is a 48-year-old West Country dairy farmer who milked his 260-strong herd at 3am on Tuesday morning, as he does every day. Hunt Ball, bought for next to nothing last summer, is his only horse and the gelding's seven wins from eight starts in Knott's colours is the stuff of extremely romantic fiction. "I felt sick before the race and I still feel a bit nervous, shaking," Knott said. "I can't take it in that it's actually happened." While unable to believe his luck, he also has an attractive faith in the horse and would not hear of defeat during the buildup. He relayed his instructions to the jockey, Nick Scholfield, as: "You've got to treat this like you're going round Taunton. Just jump round, that's all, don't do nothing stupid and we'll have the race wrapped up by the top of the hill." In his moment of elation, Knott admitted to a twinge of regret that he had not been still more ambitious and stumped up £25,000 to supplement Hunt Ball into Friday's Gold Cup. Told the horse was being quoted at 50-1 for next year's Gold Cup, the owner said: "You've got to have some of that." He described Hunt Ball as being "a bag of bones" when the horse's trainer, Keiran Burke, invited Knott to buy him. Knott was initially reluctant and only agreed because he wanted to support Burke's fledgling career. Burke, who rode a winner at last year's Festival, has the difficult job of trying to keep Knott's feet on the ground, which proved literally impossible after the horse won at Wincanton in January and the owner jumped up behind the jockey as Hunt Ball entered the winner's enclosure. Asked if the Gold Cup had ever been a serious option for this season, Burke said: "No, that was just Knotty being silly." But he feels Hunt Ball will appreciate the Gold Cup distance next year and may target it then. More immediately, the horse may turn out at Aintree's Grand National meeting and again at Sandown in April. There was post-race disappointment for Scholfield, who was riding his first Festival winner, as he picked up a six-day ban as in the verdict of the stewards he used his whip when clearly winning