We had some wonderful moments together and winning the 1986 Cheltenham Gold Cup will stay with me forever. She gave me my greatest day as a jockey

She was very moody and not a very comfortable ride - I never felt that I really fitted into her neatly and tidily.

But yet we had some wonderful moments together and winning the 1986 Cheltenham Gold Cup will stay with me forever. She gave me my greatest day as a jockey.

I first rode her in the V.A.T Watkins Hurdle at Ascot in November 1983. She had to work hard to beat Amarach by a short head and then, conceding lumps of weight, was beaten by Boreen Deas at Naas.

In her next race, she got the better of Gaye Brief in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and was made favourite for the Champion Hurdle. She went on to beat outsider Cima in the Champion Hurdle by three parts of a length.

Her first race over fences was at Navan in November 1984 but she then had 13 months off with a leg injury, before a successful return at Punchestown in December 1985.

Paddy Mullins had reservations about Dawn Run's ability to tackle a Gold Cup and I soon realised that the major threat to her chance was her jumping - she was dreadful. A big, long-striding mare, she was fantastic at flying a hurdle and she could be brilliant if she met a fence right, but she had little clue about how to adjust herself.

There was a big freeze up over January and February in 1986, so she didn't have another run in public before Cheltenham and went there with just four chases behind her.

Dawn Run was sent off the 15-8 favourite for the Gold Cup and was the best horse in the race, but I was worried that her jumping might be found out at that level. The extent of Paddy's riding orders was: "The mare is well. You know yourself what to do." That was it and it suited me fine.

At the last we landed in third behind Wayward Lad and Forgive 'n' Forget, and I knew then we would not be beaten. I'd ridden Wayward Lad in the Gold Cup three years before, and good horse though he was, he didn't get this trip. Forgive'N Forget didn't have the bottle, but Dawn Run did and after giving her a few clouts, knowing she would rally, she clawed her way back up in the centre of the track to collar Wayward Lad and go on to win by a length.

It was an amazing feeling. The noise of the crowd was incredible - a fitting reception for the first horse ever to win the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup. Dawn Run is the  only horse to have ever won The Irish Champion Hurdle, The Cheltenham Champion  Hurdle and the French Champion Hurdle. This she achieved in the 1983/4 season.
It was bedlam, glorious chaos, and a moment in time I'll never forget. How could you?

I retired at the end of that season.

French jockey Michel Chirol was on board Dawn Run for the Grande Course de Haies at Auteuil. Sadly, she was killed instantly when breaking her neck in a fall at the fifth last. She was only eight and it was one of the saddest days of my life.

"She just kept doing it," was what Paddy Mullins said when we were discussing what made her so special. He was right. She was a funny old thing, but it was a great honour to be associated with her.