'We're going to hold hands and jump over the cliff' - the inside story of Cheltenham's four-day revolution

Hands up if you still nurse wistful memories of when the Cheltenham Festival was just three days long. If that's you, prepare to feel old: it's now 20 years since the meeting was extended and the Gold Cup moved from Thursday to Friday.

It might not feel like a long time ago – it doesn't for me, anyway – but our little world has changed quite a bit in the intervening time. Willie Mullins, who now has more than 100 festival triumphs to his name, was still in single figures back in 2005 and his only winner that year was Missed That in the bumper.

Martin Pipe still held a licence and scored twice, thanks to Contraband (Arkle) and Fontanesi (County Hurdle). The dominant team that week was Howard Johnson and Graham Lee, whose three wins, all in Grade 1s, included Inglis Drever in the newly renamed World Hurdle – we know it better as the Stayers'.