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Even the best of sporting teams fall out occasionally and the looks and words that passed from Ruby Walsh to Paul Nicholls yesterday were anything but cordial. Walsh believed that misguided riding instructions were responsible for Kauto Star suffering a second successive defeat and, with face like thunder, he told the champion trainer so.

“He was mad with me,” Nicholls admitted later. “Absolutely steaming. He said he'd normally have the balls to ride him as he wanted but I'd told him to be positive rather than taking a lead. We get it right most of the time but I have to take the blame for this one. I got the tactics wrong.”

Not far wrong, as it was only by the recently introduced minimum margin of a nose that Our Vic prevailed in a thrilling finish to the totesport Bowl, with Exotic Dancer a distant third.

But, as Walsh crossly pointed out in the drizzle of the Aintree winner's enclosure, there is a difference between winning and losing, and this was an unexpected thwarting of a recovery mission for the beaten Gold Cup favourite.

Kauto Star would still have won but for a serious mistake at the second-last fence. He was six lengths clear at the time and it was hugely to the credit of Our Vic and his jockey, Timmy Murphy, that they erased the deficit to win in a bob of heads. His tenacious rally confirms that this admirable horse, sharpened by blinkers when he won the Ryanair Chase, stays an extended three miles everywhere bar the Cheltenham slopes.

Kauto Star is still expected to return there for a third Gold Cup but bookmakers believe his task is growing and Cashmans make him 7-1, from 4-1, to regain the crown.

Nicholls' day was not improved by the next race on a stellar card. Celestial Halo, seeking to emulate Detroit City and Katchit by completing the Cheltenham and Aintree juvenile hurdles double, was again ridden aggressively by Walsh but, in contrast to the Triumph Hurdle, there was one rival he could not repel.

Tony McCoy has been unusually subdued since returning from injury, securing only two winners in almost four weeks. Here, though, he was supremely confident on Binocular, swamping the pacemaker at the last flight and cruising clear by seven lengths.

McCoy had chosen to ride Binocular in the Supreme Novices Hurdle, only to be beaten by the horse he rejected, Captain Cee Bee. Both are owned by J.P. McManus and Nicky Henderson, trainer of yesterday's winner, said: “It makes the other one look very good indeed.”

Henderson hopes Binocular will graduate to Champion Hurdle class and McCoy believes he can. “He's got plenty of pace and this track was obviously going to help, but I think he has the class to go on to better things. He's a better horse than Franchoek.”

He would not have revised this opinion after Franchoek, runner-up in the Triumph Hurdle, was outpointed by the Nicholls-trained Elusive Dream in the Mersey Novices Hurdle. Owned by Harry Findlay, Elusive Dream finally restored the smile to Walsh's face after a difficult afternoon.

It had begun with a strictly supporting role on Kicks For Free behind Blazing Bailey, so often placed in the top staying hurdles but now winning the biggest purse of his career. Alan King, his trainer, will consider running him again at Punchestown's festival, where he could meet the runner-up, Faasel.

After a historic third World Hurdle at Cheltenham, Inglis Drever was a disappointment, rallying from a hopeless position to finish third. Howard Johnson, his trainer, felt he was “over the top” and will consider his future after a summer at grass. “If he does run next season, he will definitely retire after another World Hurdle,” he said.