A NORTH Yorkshire family scooped the biggest piece of silverware at the Cheltenham Festival on the final day of last week's famous meeting.

Fiona Needham rode Last Option, owned, trained and bred by her father Robin Tate, to win the Christie's Foxhunter Chase - the hunters' equivalent of the Gold Cup - in the finest fashion.

The pair led from the top of the hill and beat off the late thrust of two rivals to win the race at a rewarding 20-1.

Robin Tate, who holds a public training licence and trains on his farm near Thirsk, told the D&S Times that the giant trophy wouldn't fit on a sideboard. "They haven't built a sideboard big enough for it," he added.

He and his family are well known in point-to-point circles and the victory was just reward for the homebred. He was third in the race two years ago and a creditable fourth in last year's Scottish National.

The win this year was particularly sweet for the Tate family, who lost their farm stock during last year's foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Fiona Needham, a leading Yorkshire rider, sported the knitted colours her father had first worn when he started as a 16-year-old. Tate himself rode until he was 60 a few years ago and his venerable jumper had the most holes and darning ever seen at Prestbury Park.

Tate said that Last Option, who had come out of the race well, was now heading for the Martell Fox Hunters at Aintree if the ground stayed good, or possibly the Scottish National again.

He would also dearly love to land the Horse and Hound Cup at Stratford, but that was a long way off yet.

The family kept the winning streak going on Saturday at Market Rasen when Fiona rode the Tate-trained Joint Account to win the two and a half mile handicap chase, this time sporting her husband Kevin Needham's colours