He did however fail to complete the course on four occasions, and when he won at Warwick the Raceform representative reporting on the day, Ivor Markham, noted that "he is still inclined to go right at his fences and makes hard work of jumping.

"[4] In his final race of the season he won the Siematic Kitchens Novices Chase at the Aintree Grand National meeting.

He next appeared in the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock Park, where he took advantage of the 19 lb in weight he received from Night Nurse, to beat that rival by five lengths.

With a growing reputation, Bregawn made another quick reappearance seven days later in the Freshfields Holidays Handicap Chase at Sandown.

With Robert Earnshaw back on board, Bregawn started the 3/1 favourite, went into the lead five fences form home and beat Saint Fillans by five lengths.

Starting the 11/10 favourite, he failed by a length to concede 9 lb to the winner Scot Lane, running on strongly late on after being interfered with by a faller two fences from the finish.

Bregawn finished the season with a Timeform rating of 174, one pound behind his stable companion Silver Buck, who was voted National Hunt Horse of the Year.

After beginning the season with victory in a minor event at Newton Abbott in October, Bregawn was not hard pressed to win the four runner Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow in early November.

In an exciting finish, Bregawn made a bad mistake at the final fence, nearly unseating Bradley, and started the run-in three lengths behind his rival.

Describing the performance, Timeform stated," the closing stages of the Hennessy underlined Bregawn's battling qualities and his tremendous zest for racing."

Bregawn was beaten in his next start, the Tommy Whittle Chase at Haydock Park by his sole rival, the 1981 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Little Owl.

The Fred Winter trained pair of Fifty Dollars More and Brown Chamberlin came next in the betting followed by the other two Dickinson runners, Captain John and Ashley House.

In respect of the Gold Cup performance, Graham Bradley is on record as saying, " I firmly believe that he was so brave that day and put in so much effort that he was totally exhausted.

It blew his mind and, a bit like a boxer who wins a championship but gets badly beaten doing it, Bregawn just didn't want to go through the pain barrier again".