With the Cheltenham Festival nearly upon us, Davy Russell recalls his victory aboard Lord Windermere in the 2014 Gold Cup, a day when things fell nicely into place for the Youghal native.
Twelve years on and racing purists will say that it was a somewhat scruffy finish to jump racing's blue riband.
On first look it was hard to see who actually had passed the winning post first. Countless replays followed and then we were inside the stewards' room; questions aplenty in tones that were deferential.
And it was live on television.
In the end, Russell on the 33-1 shot Lord Windermere, trained by Jim Culloty, was awarded the race, this after just getting the better of On His Own in a photo-finish.
A bittersweet success for the winning jockey, a few months on from losing his role as retained rider for Gigginstown House Stud. That happened over a cup of tea with Michael O'Leary.
Russell, with 25 Cheltenham Festival victories, retired from race riding in 2023.
He will be an interested observer for this year's renewal at Prestbury Park, which begins on Tuesday next. And in looking ahead to what racing fans call the "Olympics" of the National Hunt, Russell first relived that special afternoon for him in 2014.
He told RTÉ Radio's Inside Sport: "When I woke up that morning I had only one ride on the Friday - and that was Lord Windermere.
"He was 33-1. I thought my chance of finding a Gold Cup horse had gone, this after myself and Gigginstown split up. But as things turned out I came in for spare rides on Tiger Roll (Triumph Hurdle) and Savello (Grand Annual Chase). So I went to the festival with six or seven rides, ended up on the Friday with a treble and winning the Gold Cup.
"It's a lot sweeter when you think the opportunity had passed you and then all of a sudden it hadn't."
As a footnote to his partnership with Lord Windermere, Russell added: "It wasn't textbook stuff with him, I took chances and they paid off."
There are many accounts as to what makes the four-day fixture in the Cotswolds so special.
"It's the gathering of all the good horses amid the unknown," is Russell's summation.
"It's also the place itself as not every horse will handle the excitement and the undulations of the track. So it takes a special horse and that just adds to everything. I can go back to the years when it was so hard for the Irish to have winners at Cheltenham and when they did have a winner they really celebrated it. We're continuing on in that vein now."
And while next week is the high point of the National Hunt season, Russell made a surprising admission, when saying: "I never experienced pressure during the week of Cheltenham".
But maybe not that surprising, when adding: "The pressure was always about finding the horses to take there".
All the hard work in preparing a string all the more satisfying then with a visit to the winner's enclosure.
"There are a lot of races run during the year but it takes a really special horse to go to Cheltenham. I always used to find you were looking for that horse and when that horse had success at the festival whether it's a Tiger Roll or a Lord Windermere, it was so pleasing.
"All the hard work and all the broken bones during the depths of winter and you sometimes ask yourself 'is there something better we could be doing?'
"You come to March and you realise there is nothing better to be doing than putting in that hard graft and getting the rewards. Because not everybody gets those rewards and that is the beauty of it, to cherish the moments when you get them."
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