Bristol De Mai after winning the 2018 Betfair Chase at Haydock Park (Focusonracing)
If there is one horse synonymous with the Betfair Chase in recent years, then it is Bristol De Mai. Trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, and owned by Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, the son of Saddler Maker won the Haydock Grade One on three occasions, including a memorable 57-length success in 2016. The popular grey earned more than £900,000 in prize money across his career and is now living out a happy retirement with Toby and Clare Lawes in Surrey.
Ahead of this year's Betfair Chase on Saturday, we went down to meet Bristol and see what life is now like for the 14-year-old, and see former jockey Daryl Jacob reunited with his 'best mate'.
"Dressage, cross country, showjumping, he loves hunting, we just do whatever Bristol wants to do!" said Clare Lawes, who rides him almost every day. "He doesn't love the Flat work, but he's such an athlete, he would pick up anything you ever wanted to do with him.
"It suits him really well here. We have horses in training so he still half-thinks he's a racehorse, but he gets to do lots of other fun stuff as well at the same time.
"He gets to live out a semi-retirement. He's by no means retired in that he's not put out to grass just yet, there is plenty of fun to be had with him, but he has a slower pace of life than he did when he was in training."
See what else Clare and Daryl had to say about Bristol on our YouTube channel!