Four Irish-trained winners in an afternoon. If it had been Cheltenham the roof would have been blown away but Aintree yesterday was a sombre place after the death of the enigmatic and charismatic One Man in the Mumm Melling Chase.

The Gordon Richards-trained grey had turned his nose up at the enigma accusers in the Champion Chase after years of running over excessive distances and deserved better than his fate at the ninth fence of the two and a half mile contest.

With his Cheltenham partner Brian Harding on board, One Man was bowling along in front but never took off at all at the obstacle and crashed to the ground.

Almost immediately the ominous screens were placed around the prostrate One Man and when it was discovered he had fractured his off-hind tibia there was no option but to put him down.

Harding returned in tears where owner John Hales was being comforted.

Hales left the track almost immediately with Richards and it was the latter's son Nicky who said: "My father is too upset to talk. It's terrible but One Man proved to be a real champion at Cheltenham and that is how we'll remember him."

While One Man was living his few minutes John Fowler's Opera Hat, backed from 20 to 1 in the morning to 10 to 1, was beating Or Royal and Strong Promise to give Conor O'Dwyer his first Liverpool winner.

"It's very sad about One Man. It was a horrible fall but in the end my mare was very good and very brave," said O'Dwyer.

Racing had opened with Promalee drifting on the run-in of the Mersey Novices Hurdle but having too many gears for the opposition and running out a six length winner under Charlie Swan.

"I thought beforehand he'd win but that ground is very testing," said Swan, who rides Him Of Praise in the National today.

Boss Doyle was many people's idea of a good thing in the Mildmay Novices Chase but Tony McCoy was anxious for most of the three mile trip despite Mouse Morris's six-year-old eventually running out a 13 length winner.

"I was never going on that ground and it was only at the second last that I thought he'd win," McCoy said. Morris added: "His guts and class won the day as he hates that ground. The Gold Cup in the year 2000 is the aim and in the immediate future he will go to Punchestown."

Fran Berry (17) pounced late on the Christy Roche-trained Khayrawani to beat McCoy and Cadougold in the Oddbins Handicap Hurdle and win only his 11th race over flights while a fantastic Irish five-timer only just failed when a last fence mistake took what looked a certain winning chance from Elegant Lord in the Foxhunters.

Enda Bolger's charge eventually went down by a length and threequarters to Cavalero.

John Dunlop's dual Group One-winning Taipan will be the sole British representative in the Group Two Prix d'Harcourt at over a mile and a quarter at Longchamp tomorrow. The other runners are the home quartet, Majorien, Fragrant Mix, Astarabad and Baroud d'Honneur, plus the German-trained Ajano.