CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL: The word "bittersweet" was being freely bandied around to describe Charlie Swan's day after the French star Baracouda won a dramatic Stayers' Hurdle.

Swan picked up the 17th festival victory of his illustrious career with a freewheeling success on Scolardy in the Triumph, but it was Bannow Bay's neck defeat half an hour later that had the jockey wishing for a replay button.

The gambled-on Irish star was cruising from the top of the hill, while Thierry Doumen snaked Baracouda through the field from an unpromising position at the back.

It looked good for the Irish horse, but Swan chose to wait to make his move and by the time they got to the last, Baracouda was back on the bridle and on terms.

Bannow Bay then made a mistake and although he battled back strongly, Doumen didn't have to pick up his whip to get the JP McManus-owned winner home.

"Vive la France est vive l'Irlande!" shouted a diplomatic Doumen in the No 1 spot but in the No 2, Christy Roche was thinking of what might have been.

"I didn't think there was a horse to beat us. I can't tell you how confident I was. If anybody told me before the week that I wouldn't have two winners, I wouldn't have believed him," he said.

Swan didn't hide from the "what-might-have-beens" either.

"The mistake at the last cost me but I got to the front too soon and when I got there I should have kicked," he said.

Roche added: "He has never been in front that long before and we were waiting for Thierry. If we'd kicked, maybe it would have been different, but all credit to the winner." McManus commented: "I didn't have a bet. I kind of talked myself out of it - I spend too much time with Christy Roche!"

Scolardy, in contrast, was so straightforward but there was a "might-have-been" here too following the Willie Mullins-trained horse's 11-length defeat of Newhall.

Scolardy was thrown out of first place by the stewards at Leopardstown last month, ironically Newhall picked up the race, and there was a €100,000 bonus for the horse that won that and the Triumph.

"It's still hard to see how we lost that race but we're still happy enough. We got our bonus today," said Mullins.

Scolardy received a 25 to 1 quote from some firms for next year's Champion Hurdle which will do nothing to console those who might have owned him.

"He has been for sale all year. The price was being upped because he was winning, but at the start he was a very reasonable price," Mullins added.

David Casey's delight at securing a first Festival winner was obvious as he punched the air following Fadoudal Du Cochet's Grand Annual success. It brought the Irish winner total for the Festival week to five and Arthur Moore's career total here to six.

"I was thinking of putting Conor O'Dwyer on him, but he would have had to do 2lb overweight, so I put David up. I'm sorry Conor missed the winner but the overweight might have made a difference," Moore said.

O'Dwyer's look didn't change in the County Hurdle as The Gatherer was run out of it in the closing stages by Rooster Booster.

That gave Richard Johnson a second winner of the week and it edged him ahead of Charlie Swan in the race for the Festival's top jockey title. Swan also had two winners and a second like Johnson, but the Englishman had one more third.