David Christie was proud of the effort of his horses, despite missing out on a Cheltenham race win by the narrowest of margins.

Christie admitted a victory at the famous meeting would be a career highlight, and it looked as if his dreams were going to be fulfilled when Winged Leader raced towards the finish line in the St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase, only for Willie Mullins’ trained Billaway to snatch victory by a neck in the final strides. Winged Leaders’ heroics came one day after Christie’s second horse, Koshari, was beaten by less than eight lengths in the Stayers’ Hurdle.

“I’m proud of both horses and proud of the way they performed, and apart from winning I couldn’t really have asked any more from them,” said Christie, who admitted that seeing Winger Leader fall just short of glory was tough to accept.

“That is one that is still hard to talk about. You never know until they cross the line, and I could see Patrick coming back at him, but I thought he deserved to win it. He ran a tremendous race.

"I was proud that someone like ourselves could come from Derrylin and go to the biggest theatre for horse racing and almost clinch it against possibly the best trainer in the world. There were a lot of emotions there, but at the end of the day it was a battle with Willie Mullins in the heat of Cheltenham. It wasn’t a war zone, so you have to put these things into perspective. It was gut wrenching at the time and it will hurt for a while but you have to put these things into perspective.”

Koshari finished seventh in Thursday’s race, but was far from outclassed in a high quality field. The horse won at Aintree in November, and once again excelled in a high profile race despite enduring a long recovery from a cut picked up in the win in Liverpool.

“To be beaten by just under eight lengths in a grade one at Cheltenham was a great achievement,” said David.

“It is a Grade One £300,000 race with all the top steers in England and Ireland and he was only beaten by under eight lengths. That was a tremendous achievement for a horse that had gone through so much after his injury.”

The reward for both horses could another chance to show their quality at Aintree if all goes according to plan in the next few weeks.

“Winged Leader may go to Aintree in three weeks’ time for a big Hunters Chase over the Grand National fences, and Koshari might go there for the Grade One on Grand National day,” David revealed.

“At this minute in time, we are just trying to readjust and get everything settled back down again and get the horses back into a routine and see how they are at the end of this week. Then we will make a plan after that.”