THE rituals have remained much the same since the glory days. The straw was delivered last week, the ducklings have hatched right under the conservatory window and Terry’s lucky hat has been salvaged from the wardrobe. The debate in the parlour is still as lively as ever. “He’s completely different from Best Mate,” Henrietta Knight says firmly, determined to nip any comparison in the bud.

“I didn’t say he was the same as Best Mate, I said he had the same presence about him,” counters Terry Biddlecombe, the gruff other half of racing’s most famous double act. Either way, after a few lean seasons down on the farm in West Lockinge, it’s good to be invoking the name of the three-time Gold Cup winner once more, this time in framing the talent of Somersby, second favourite for the Arkle Trophy on the opening day of Cheltenham’s Festival.

Knight is understandably anxious not to saddle the young chaser with the lead weight of the past this early in his career. Though Somersby has won both his novice chases handsomely, putting paid to the promising Crack Away Jack at Sandown Park on his second outing, a meeting with Captain Cee Bee and Sizing Europe, the best of Ireland’s young generation, marks a leap into the unknown for the six-year-old with the long white blaze and the combustible temperament.

“We had some people down from Radio Oxford this morning,” says Knight. “Somersby behaved appallingly, bucking and squealing in his box. He’s quite a lad, quite cheeky. Matey would have regarded him as utterly delinquent.”

If Somersby does justify the stable’s unmistakable confidence on Tuesday and, coincidentally, win a race that, because of the outbreak of foot and mouth and the cancellation of the 2001 festival, eluded Best Mate, attempts to play down the familiarity of his background are bound to fail. Like Best Mate, Somersby was bought out of the equine academy run by the Costello family in the west of Ireland. Like Best Mate, too, he is unfashionably bred, yet was born with enough speed to be placed in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the traditional proving ground for champion hurdlers and neo-chasers. Somersby, Knight says, might have a better turn of foot than Best Mate, but he is not as elegant a mover or as economical a jumper.

“Matey was like clockwork,” she explains. “Everything was smooth. You didn’t have to worry about him falling. He was like that from very early in his career. Somersby needs a jockey with very good hands because he can land with his head up a bit and he’s got quite a sensitive mouth. He’s got the same competitive spirit but he’s more flamboyant.”

It’s hard to tell how the death of Best Mate, in a fall at Exeter four and a half years ago, truly affected Knight’s morale or the spirit of a yard that seemed to defy jump racing’s rush to modernisation. Knight knew her horses and the land she was brought up to love and adapted her training methods accordingly. She was much criticised for not running Best Mate more often, only for Paul Nicholls to follow her template to the letter with Kauto Star, Best Mate’s natural successor.

As soon as Best Mate’s light was dimmed, racing’s beam moved away in search of the next champion. When the recession gripped and some long-term patrons of West Lockinge were driven out of racing, numbers dwindled from a high of 70 to the current intake of just under 50 and the flow of winners, always a lazy stream rather than a raging torrent, began to slow.

“I used to look at the statistics page of the Racing Post just to check we were staying in the top 20,” Knight says. “I don’t bother now. We haven’t consciously scaled down — we could do with 10 more horses — but we’ve never been interested in numbers just for the sake of it.

“It’s the way of the world. People are going for the big trainers and the big names. So it’s easy to feel forgotten sometimes. I feel Best Mate has been forgotten a bit, too. Kauto Star is a brilliant horse but he hasn’t captured the imagination of the public like Matey.”

A foray into syndication has proved an overwhelming success and a recent trip to Ireland showed that the affection for great horses and great characters remains as strong as ever across the water. “We hadn’t been to a point-to-point in Ireland for a couple of years but we went to two in a weekend and the reception we got was amazing, absolutely wonderful,” says Knight.

Now it’s up to the dark, muscular occupant of the box two down from Best Mate’s old stable and his new jockey, Robert Thornton, to banish any lingering ghosts. Emulating Best Mate’s record of three successive Gold Cup victories might prove impossible but Somersby has done something almost as precious already by brightening the horizon.

“He’s potentially very, very exciting,” says Knight. “The pressure with Best Mate in the build-up to Cheltenham was enormous, particularly the last year, but in a way this is more nerve-wracking. We’re starting a new journey and, like the last, it could lead anywhere.”