The crowd of 7,000 came to honour Istabraq but for the second time this season the triple champion hurdler ended up burying his nose at Leopardstown's final hurdle.

The huge gasp from the stands indicated the shock at how lightning, and the eventual winner Moscow Flyer, had struck twice but there was also wholesale relief that Ireland's most famous racehorse survived the fall unscathed.

"It showed we can take nothing for granted but it could have been worse - no lives were lost," said owner JP McManus who 40 minutes earlier had seen his best steeplechaser First Gold unseat his rider at Sandown when almost as hot a favourite as Istabraq.

"I'm very pleased Istabraq is sound but the jumps are there to be jumped and he didn't get over that one," McManus added after the £115,000 Shell Champion Hurdle.

Moscow Flyer was also the horse that took advantage when Istabraq fell at the same obstacle on New Year's Eve and although he had been feeling the sting of Barry Geraghty's whip in the straight, the jockey was not convinced his mount wouldn't have won anyway.

"I felt Charlie (Swan) was just panicking a little. I don't know how it would have turned out but I saw Charlie pushing and normally on Istabraq he doesn't," Geraghty said.

But Swan was having none of that. "He's gone a bit lazy but he had loads left. I just sat beside Moscow Flyer a bit long. It's hard when he hasn't been racing for so long," Swan said.

The £1 million earner had travelled beautifully throughout just his third race of a season which has been curtailed due to the foot-and-mouth crisis. A magnificent jump at the second last flight allowed Istabraq to cruise up to Moscow Flyer but he dived at the final obstacle and took a nasty fall.

Trainer Aidan O'Brien reported the horse to be fine afterwards and said: "He's just gone a bit idle. He was brilliant two out and was almost going too well. There was no speed up which saved him but also cost him the race."

Bookmaker reaction from Cashmans was to extend Istabraq to 7 to 4 for the 2002 Smurfit Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and even after his seven-length victory, Moscow Flyer remains a 40 to 1 outsider for that race.

"It's sort of unsatisfactory because we still don't really know how good he is against Istabraq," commented Moscow Flyer's trainer Jessica Harrington who added that the horse might even be put novice chasing next season instead of continuing his struggles against Istabraq over hurdles.

"He is such a great jumper and we might give him a pop over a fence at home. I thought he jumped brilliantly through that race but I wouldn't like to say for definite we would have beaten the other horse if he had stood up. Istabraq is very tough," she said.