My Top Ten Moments of 2017: Andy Stephens selects his favourites

It is a good job Aidan O’Brien is not among our team picking out his personal Ten Top Moments of 2017 because he might have needed 28 to really play fair.

O’Brien’s exploits this year were phenomenal and provided a running theme to the whole summer but he has to settle for being a small cog in a big wheel among my highlights.

Two of them took place on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival in March, which would have been my day of the year in terms of drama and tales of the unexpected. Here goes:

Does anyone ever tire of watching this? I still smile every time as Might Bite gets distracted after the final fence in the RSA Chase and tries to join those yelling him home in the Arkle Bar.

What most forget about this contest was the breathtaking manner in which Nicky Henderson’s star had jumped and galloped up until that point. It had been a display of rare brilliance and, but for his antics near the finish, he would have hammered Whisper by at least 15 lengths.

The exact merit of that effort became evident in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury this month when Whisper went so close to defying a mark of 161. Might Bite himself landed the King George VI Chase and is now Gold Cup favourite. Take a deep breath if he is clear coming to the last.

Douvan’s defeat in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, an hour or so after the fun with Might Bite, makes it in here for its shock value.

Sent off 2-9 to extend his winning sequence to 15, we turned up on day two of the meeting expecting an exhibition - and a first winner at the meeting for Willie Mullins - but instead found ourselves attending an inquisition.

Instinctively, all members of the media headed to the area for also-rans after the race to find out the reaction of connections. Poor old Henry De Bromhead - was anyone there to congratulate him and Special Tiara?

Willie Mullins spoke eloquently, even if inside he must have been feeling crushed. Initially puzzled, it did not take long to establish Douvan had hurt himself. His continued absence, until next season, is a great loss to the sport.

Keep going, keep going! You’re not there yet! It did not matter how loud I shouted at my television, James Ridley could not hear me.

The amateur rider had given 33-1 outsider Lookslikerainted a textbook ride and was home for all money. But then he eased up and started giving his mount celebratory pats - mistakenly thinking he had crossed the finishing line.

Two rivals flashed past him a second from the finish with Triangular, a first runner under rules for Ciara Fry, taking the spoils. Even then, Ridley was oblivious to his bungle.

Ridley was banned 28 days and found himself trending on Twitter. Our original clip of the incident was retweeted 1,400 times, liked 918 times and prompted 465 comments. You can imagine the tone of many. #unforgiving

The Grand National is never going to be the race it once was after modifications in recent years but this year’s renewal was a tremendously exciting spectacle which threw up a tremendous story - a Scottish-based stable winning with a horse owned by a couple of old school chums and ridden by an unheralded jockey who had to pull out all the stops to be back in the saddle after injury.

Five horses traded at 5-1 or shorter in-running on Betfair, giving a fair indication of the changing fortunes, and Blaklion looked like he had slipped the field only to be clawed back.

I’m also a little biased. I’d had a miserable time punting at Cheltenham the previous month and managed to have a few quid on the rugged winner.

The brilliant Enable had to feature at least once in here and my first thought was to include her stunning King George success.

However, her victory in the Investec Oaks at Epsom was even more memorable with the thunder, lightning and heavy rain rolling all around the track.

Olivier Peslier jumped off Daddy’s Lil Darling at around 40mph (don’t try that at home) before the start after the startled American filly spooked and the business end developed into a shootout between Rhododendron, the odds-on favourite, and Enable.

The pair eyeballed each other two out as the rain swept into their faces and it was a case of who would blink first. Rhododendron wilted as Enable bloomed. She was awesome that wild June afternoon.

6. June 3: Padraig Beggy upstages star cast.

Wings of what? Padraig who? It is not often that at the end of the Derby you have to study the racecard to try to discover the identity of the winner.

Aidan O’Brien saddled six in the premier Classic at Epsom and Wings Of Eagles, at 40-1, was his fifth string according to the betting with the little-known Padraig Beggy on his back.

Inside the final furlong O’Brien’s principal contender, Cliffs Of Moher, mastered the sons of Frankel - Cracksman and Eminent - only for Beggy and Wings of Eagles to sweep past in the final strides.

Afterwards the exultant jockey told us all about himself and talked openly about the mistake of taking cocaine while in Australia. It was a surreal day.

I love staying races on the Flat. They are slow-burners and you get more value for money out of a losing wager.

This year’s Gold Cup caught alight long before the finish with the I-wear-my-heart-on-my-sleeve Big Orange taking his rivals out of their comfort zone one by one with his customary catch-me-if-you-can tactics under substitute jockey James Doyle.

Ryan Moore observed from a distance aboard Order Of St George, seemingly intent on not getting involved in a prolonged battle, and looked to have timed his challenge to perfection - only for Big Orange to pull out a little bit more and win by a short head. It was a gripping race and a shame there had to be a loser.

Never mind Ulysses and Barney Roy being separated by a whisker at the end of a pulsating Coral-Eclipse, what about everything that happened before and after they flashed past the line as one?

Padraig Beggy (remember him) was pacemaking on Taj Mahal and contrived to hamper his own stablemate, and favourite, Cliffs Of Moher. He was one of three jockeys in the race punished by the stewards.

In the closing stages, Eminent tried to take a chunk out of Decorated Knight and Sir Michael Stoute’s joy at winning was tainted by a £1,000 fine for Ulysses entering the parade ring late. Oh, and winning jockey Jim Crowley had been dumped by the connections of Eminent in the build-up. It was a race that had it all.

It stands to reason that when you celebrate winning before the finishing line on many occasions that, one day, you are going to make a mess of things.

We all love Frankie Dettori for his exhibitive nature but he got his sums spectacularly wrong here after mistakenly thinking he had triumphed in one of the biggest sprints of the year, the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes, aboard odds-on favourite Lady Aurelia.

Dettori must have wanted the Knavesmire to open up and swallow him when the judge announced Marsha had taken the spoils. “I thought I’d won a neck,” he said as he returned to the area reserved for the runner-up.

Then he gave Lady Aurelia a hug and apologised to her before returning to what you suspect was a mischievous weighing room.

It was difficult not to recall the power and majesty of Frankel as one of his sons from his first crop, Cracksman, surged clear of his rivals in the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot on Champions Day.

Frankel was never one for half-measures and Cracksman has clearly inherited his relish for running rivals ragged - winning by seven lengths in a swift time given the soft ground.

Owner Anthony Oppenheimer was reduced to tears afterwards but trainer John Gosden was his usual sea of calm, even if he had to bite his lip when asked for the umpteenth time about not running the colt in the Arc.