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For Swan it was part of a winning debrief.Rather like the race itself, Istabraq’s competence at the last was more effective than pleasing to the eye. This, the doomsayers told us, was the obstacle which had claimed the horse in two of his last three starts, a hurdle which some had invested with a terrible significance of a Taxis or Becher’s.Well, Istabraq got to the other side and recorded his fourth win in the race, by a head from Bust Out, form which would not win a race on Blackpool beach. You would want a little more than this from your 4-11 shots but, it appears, that is all we are going to get before Gloucestershire in the spring.Like another multiple Champion Hurdler in See You Then, Istabraq’s competitive career will be kept to a minimum in an effort to secure maximum impact on the big day. Even his annual venture in the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle now looks a doubt.

It will be straight to the Festival.O’Brien sounded rather like he should have been in a sheepskin coat and drinking downstairs at the Winchester Club when he talked about “keeping miles off the clock”, but the believers will hold on to the comfort blanket of the Champion Hurdle victories of Hatton’s Grace and Sea Pigeon as 10-year-olds.There were vultures circling, though, in the aftermath of Saturday, with the prices of Valiramix and Landing Light, both impressive in their own distinctive way, cut by Ladbrokes. The former, a facile victor at Newbury, is 7-2 (from 5-1), while Landing Light, who showed the sort of grit in Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle which all horses need to drag themselves up the Cheltenham hill, is 6-1 (from 7-1).Istabraq is now a best-priced 13-8, with Coral, and we will have to take his condition and retention of ability on trust. While we can rely on O’Brien not to talk with a forked tongue, not even he will know precisely how far Istabraq has deteriorated during the near two-year gap since he won a Champion Hurdle That, though, is a secondary question. The main one, for the time being, was answered on Saturday and Cheltenham can once again look forward to receiving one of the greatest of its champions.. Although the England cricket team may have some way to go to catch up on the Australians, since Nasser Hussain’s installation as captain they have added a touch of steel to their make-up, and he has been rewarded with an OBE. Even in the 1-0 series defeat in India recently, the performances by a squad missing several senior players have received much praise.Lennox Lewis can add a CBE to the MBE he already possesses for his boxing exploits. He lost his world heavyweight titles to Hasim Rahman in April but regained them in November.

Another Lewis was appointed CBE – Tony Lewis, the former England cricket captain and a former president of the MCC. Under Lewis, women were admitted to the MCC for the first time while Lord’s underwent a modernisation programme.In football, the former England coach Graham Taylor is appointed OBE, while Gary McAllister, 37, the former Scotland captain who has won five trophies with Liverpool this year, becomes MBE.The cyclist Yvonne McGregor, 40, is made MBE after her Olympic bronze in the women’s individual pursuit in Sydney last year. Terry Spinks, who won Olympic featherweight gold at Melbourne in 1956, is appointed MBE for services to boxing and charity, while the golfer Max Faulkner, 85, who won the Open championship in 1951, becomes OBE.A sporting knighthood has gone to the businessman John Beckwith, who helped found the Youth Sports Trust. Other sporting MBEs include: James Fleming, a rugby union referee; Dougie Lampkin, for services to motorcycle trials riding; Reginald Lomas, head groundsman at Cheltenham Racecourse; Susan McKiernan, for services to disabled sport; Ann Saunders, for services to the Jockeys’ Association of Great Britain; and Dorothy Tyler, for services to athletics..

The Australia captain Steve Waugh maintains a “misunderstanding” was behind the incident which saw him fined for dissent in the second Test against South Africa, which they won by nine wickets here on Saturday. From my point of view it was disappointing because there was a different side of the story that I’d love to put across but I can’t.”The Australian umpire Darrell Hair gave Waugh out run out without calling for the assistance of the third umpire Bob Parry. Waugh’s reluctance to leave the scene led to the fine from the match referee Ranjan Madugalle The sanction is Waugh’s second in international cricket. He was fined 30 per cent of his match fee against India in Colombo in 1996, also for dissent.Australia, who take an unassailable 2-0 lead into the third Test in Sydney on Wednesday, have added the leg-spinner Stuart MacGill to their squad.