Rarely can there have been a Festival meeting where pretty much all the fancied horses came up with the goods and gave us four days of incredible performances. The feel good factor ran through the four days from Douvan and Annie Power on the opening day to Ivanovich Gorbatov and Don Cossack on the final day. These are some of the highlights.

HORSES

It was difficult to find the outstanding performance of the meeting as four of the Grade 1s were won by the favourite, Annie Power, Thistlecrack, Vautour and Don Cossack. Annie Power was greeted with delight by Ruby Walsh and joy by supporters after her misfortune last year. Thistlecrack was outstanding in winning the World Hurdle, his fourth impressive win of the year. You will rarely see a horse accelerate as he did when asked up Cheltenham hill. Vautour repeated his win from last year, in identical fashion, bounding over the last with his ears pricked. Don Cossack looked the class act he has threatened to be through the last year when taking the Gold Cup in decisive style.

The time analysists also revealed the performances were as good as they looked.

But it was the only winning non-favourite of the big Grade 1 races that raised the biggest cheers when Sprinter Sacre returned to his top form in toppling Un De Sceaux in the Champion Chase. It had looked unlikely that he would ever reach the heights of old after he was pulled up last year.

FESTIVAL ONLY

The top horses of the current era are running less and less in the early part of the season with the Festival becoming ever more dominant.

Typically for a Nigel Twiston Davies runner, RSA Chase winner Blaklion had the most runs of the Grade 1 winners and showed no ill effects of running on heavy ground through the winter. His win was his sixth run of the season. Don Cossack was having his fifth run, Thistlecrack his fourth. Sprinter Sacre had only two runs while Annie Power and Vautour had only three previous runs between them. It would be nice to see the stars a bit more often.

TRAINERS

Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Nicky Henderson, Nigel Twiston Davies and Paul Nicholls could all feel very satisfied with their week.

By contrast, the two trainers who had been in top form and landed big prizes all winter, Alan King and Philip Hobbs has very disappointing week. It was different ground but you hope this doesn’t put off trainers from running their horses run through the winter.

JOCKEYS

It was a feature of the meeting that three of the jockeys who received most criticism through this season, Ruby Walsh, Bryan Cooper and Sam Twiston-Davies had very good festivals. Walsh extending his record as top rider to 52, Cooper choosing right horse in the Gold Cup and landing the sport’s biggest prize at only 23. Twiston-Davies also had a good festival with three winners.

LADY RIDERS

All the spotlight was on the newest lady rider in Victoria Pendleton and she did much better than anyone could have expected in almost grabbing a place in the Foxhunter on Pacha Du Polder. The race was won by racing's leading lady, Nina Carberry, as strong as any male or professional, in getting On The Fringe home. This season’s other female star Lizzie Kelly only had two rides but lost no kudos in keeping Coo Star Sivola in contention in the Fred Winter.

TOP SIRES

It was an incredible week for Sadler’s Wells son Kayf Tara who sired three Grade 1 winners in Thistlecrack, Blaklion and Ballyandy. Overall sons of Sadler’s Wells had a fantastic festival in the sire stakes with festival winners for King’s Theatre, Milan, Sholokhov, Ballingarry, Duke Of Marmalade, Montjeu, High Chaparral, Pierre while Montjeu’s son Walk in the Park sired Douvan.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

Un De Sceaux (4/6) was the only odds-on beaten favourite. On the face of it, it looked a bit disappointing, he was beaten very early by Sprinter Sacre, having no answer to that horse’s surge of the bend.

You wonder given the race again, would Ruby Walsh have done anything different.

STEWARDS INQUIRY

The Zabana not starting fiasco was an unsatisfactory point as was the BHA’s brushing aside of the inquiry in “the all procedures were adhered to” response. A starter should be able to get nine horses to start from a straight line to give the required “standing start to the satisfaction of the starter.”

Equally bringing in Joseph O’Brien after his Triumph win with Ivanovich Gorbatov looked a bit unnecessary.

When the same conditions had been openly acknowledged by Paul Nicholls, that Harry Fry trained Rock On Ruby from a satellite yard when he won the Champion Hurdle.

SPECIAL MOMENTS

Every winner is special and it was notable how much the success meant to every owner no matter how much they had spent on their runners. Winners at Cheltenham are an almost elusive dream. After the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle, both Rich Ricci and Michael O’Leary’s emotion were touching to see.

Bryan Drew’s delight after his win with the expensively bought Un Temps Pour Tout in a handicap, Galway trainer Pat Kelly’s win with Mall Dini for an eloquent interviewee in Philip Reynolds, were all special.

But Any Currency’s win as a 13-year-old in the Cross-Country when he was previously second on two occasions, with trainer Martin Keighley’s kids out of school for the day to enjoy the moment, was a particular favourite for a smaller yard.

LOW POINTS

The deaths of seven horses was the worst total at a festival in many years. Not all were in falls nor had any common characteristics so there was no blame attached. The loss of No More Heroes was a particular low point as he had looked set to go to the very top.

Cue Card's departure in the Gold Cup robbed the race of an even more exciting finish.

NEXT YEAR’S BANKER?

With so many outstanding performances who is the most likely to succeed in 2017. Douvan is the obvious but what race will he run in?

Perhaps a safer bet is Limini, ready made and still probably unexposed, for the Mares’ Hurdle in 2017.

For more Cheltenham analysis and comment see this week’s paper. Available from Friday 7.30pm online.