Best mate Gary Neville broke his shortly afterwards and missed the whole World Cup.
Throughout the series he and his best mate Andrew Flintoff led the way with raw hostility and aggression.
Just weeks earlier, the amiable Culloty won the Gold Cup aboard Best Mate.
Best Mate remains firmly at the head of the ante-post market for the Gold Cup after the Pillar Chase, usually a reliable trial, proved disappointing.
He and his partner did not invite his best mate's girlfriend.
As for Best Mate, the quote that Shakespeare put into the mouth of Henry IV comes to mind: "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown".
McCoy's biggest win of the season came at Kempton in Boxing Day's King George VI Chase aboard Best Mate, a ride he took following regular jockey Jim Culloty's suspension.
Cheltenham have introduced the Best Mate Season Ticket to attract punters to racing during credit-crunch times, which allows entry in to the Best Mate Enclosure for all 17 Cheltenham race fixtures.
But then things rose and rose and we had a great crescendo on the final day with some cracking races and, of course, the victory of Best Mate in the Gold Cup.
If Best Mate confirmed his status as jumping's superstar, Persian Punch made a good case for ousting some of his more fashionable and younger rivals as the leading light of the Flat year.
BBC: SPORT | Other Sport | Horse Racing | Racing: Stars repeat success
Owner Jim Lewis said that Best Mate, who was the first horse since Arkle in the 1960s to win the Gold Cup three times, was a pleasure to own and would never be forgotten.
BBC: SPORT | Other Sport... | Horse Racing | Gold Cup legend Best Mate dies
"When we started dealing with him he came across as very jokey, like he's your best mate, " said now-retired Det Ch Insp Colin Sutton, who led the investigation into Ms McDonnell and Ms Delagrange's murders.
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Even the horses got in on the act, with Best Mate retaining his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown, High Chaparral winning the Breeders' Cup Turf again - and Persian Punch continuing to duck retirement and keep on winning.
BBC: SPORT | Other Sport | Horse Racing | Racing: Stars repeat success
Research carried out by one of his postdoctoral students involving 30 Sheffield sixth formers showed that 85% of the texts they sent were going to one of two people - usually a boyfriend or girlfriend and a best mate.
The singer was said to be one of his first visitors in hospital in London, describing the photographer and film-maker - whom she first met aged 15 while making a documentary in Africa - as her "best mate", "brave" and "a survivor".
But now Calzaghe passes the baton onto his former stable-mate and best friend.
Careful planning goes into choosing a mate to produce the best possible racer.
Team-mate Colin Edwards scored a season-best result in fifth.
Rather than being misled by our instincts on a first date, we can calmly sort through the alternatives and find the best possible spouse, the would-be soul mate who will maximize our romantic utility.
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No longer will we cast a wide net when searching for news, jobs, apartments, a mate, etc. and hope for the best.
The mate I found decided that it would be best I did not find a job so they had a friend send emails to the employers I had applied to with my photos as attachments.
Admittedly the English media can be harsh and cynical at the best of times but as a friend and former team-mate, the perception or depiction of Ponting the man can't be further from the reality.
With team-mate Felipe Massa qualifying third, half a second behind Alonso and pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel, and ahead of the German's Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, it was Ferrari's best qualifying result of the season so far.
Samson Oni just missed out on a lifetime best 2.31m to finish third ahead of GB team-mate Martyn Bernard.
The pair combined to create Bayern's best chance of the first half when Ribery headed his team-mate's dinked cross against the bar.
They went into half-time 10-0 up but it should have been more convincing, with Tom Voyce blowing their best chance of adding to the scoreline when he knocked on with team-mate Charlie Sharples unmarked outside him.
The 23-year-old, who pipped team-mate Nicola Sanders to the gold medal in Osaka, also received a trophy for the best performance in 2007 in a GB vest.
But by sacrificing himself to ward off other amorous males (even when his mate is nothing but a dead mealworm), he certainly makes sure that it is his best shot.
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Because flashy, dominant males tend to mate with disproportionately more females than dull, unassuming ones it makes sense to focus on bringing the best sons to the peak of perfection with a hormone injection that makes them look even flashier than their genes alone would allow.
Vokes replaced Wolverhampton Wanderers team-mate Edwards and he wasted little time in showing his potential threat as Agaev needed to be at his best to push Vokes' looping header over.
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