The seven basic phases of
hurdling can only be mastered by intensive drills and reps that fully integrate all the fundamentals and niceties of the art.
Few who saw him that day could have predicted that they had just seen a horse who would etch a place in
hurdling history.
Bula was odds-on again when he went for a third Champion Hurdle in 1973, having added another five wins, but a new generation of
hurdling stars was emerging and he finished only fifth, less than four lengths behind Comedy Of Errors but beaten in such a fashion that connections were left in little doubt that his days at the top of the
hurdling tree were over.
A useful Flat handicapper who was fourth in York's Magnet Cup, Comedy Of Errors made an immediate success of
hurdling and a neck second to Noble Life in the Gloucestershire (now Supreme Novices') Hurdle, less than a month after his debut, had confirmed him an outstanding prospect.
The racing world was stunned by his demise in what was to be his final race of a season in which he had taken the
hurdling scene by storm.