February did not end well for JP McManus, as an American court rejected his claim for a refund of $5.2m in tax paid on his winnings of $17.4m in a three-day backgammon match in California in 2012. A different game of chance brought a welcome change of fortune here on Tuesday as Buveur D’Air and My Tent Of Yours completed a one-two for McManus’s famous green and gold colours in the Champion Hurdle, and made him the first owner in Festival history to reach 50 winners at the meeting.

This was a notable victory too for Nicky Henderson, the trainer of both horses, who took sole ownership of the record for Champion Hurdle victories with his sixth success in the race. There is also the added satisfaction for the trainer that Buveur D’Air started his season in novice chases and switched back to the smaller obstacles thanks to Henderson’s hunch that Buveur D’Air still had the speed and quality to win a Champion Hurdle.

Petit Mouchoir, the winner of the Irish Champion Hurdle in February, started the race in his familiar front-running role but was less than fluent at a couple of flights and was clearly not going as well as several opponents with half a mile to run.

Brain Power, Henderson’s third runner, was one of those travelling easily in behind, only to drop away rapidly coming down the hill. Henderson’s sixth Champion Hurdle success was assured some way from home. Buveur D’Air took the measure of Petit Mouchoir going to the last and it was soon clear only his stable companion stood any chance of reeling him in.

My Tent Or Yours is one of life’s runner’s up at this meeting. As Buveur D’Air stayed on strongly for Noel Fehily, My Tent Or Yours kept on to finish second for the third time in the Champion Hurdle and fourth time in all at the Festival.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” McManus said. “I can’t remember what Nicky said [when he wanted to return Buveur D’Air to hurdles] but he said it more than once. He was pretty insistent and in the end we let him have his way. He was sure he wanted to give him a shot even before Faugheen and Annie Power [the last two winners of the race] were declared non-runners. He’s a top man and sometimes you have to go along with it.”

Henderson made his name here as the trainer of See You Then, a three-times winner of the Champion Hurdle in the mid-1980s, and remains the most successful trainer in the meeting’s history. This win took his Festival total to 57, and completed a double on the day after Altior’s win in the Arkle Trophy.

“The horse that Buveur D’Air beat very easily first time out over fences at Haydock [Cloudy Dream] was second to Altior in the Arkle,” Henderson said, “and I thought, blimey, that’s good chasing form. I wondered if I had got it wrong.

“But we felt it was the right thing to do and it has worked on the day. On paper it wasn’t a historic Champion Hurdle but it was very open and there to be taken. I’m sure horses don’t understand sympathy but we’re hugely proud of My Tent Or Yours coming back to finish second again. He’s been a legend but we’ve beaten him ourselves and Buveur D’Air was great.

“I remember coming up to Barry Geraghty on Trials Day here in January and saying: ‘Look, I just know we’re going down the wrong road with Buveur D’Air for the time being. There’s unfinished business.’”

McManus also suggested that Yanworth, the well-beaten 2-1 favourite, would have been his personal pick from his three-strong team for the race and it is difficult to be sure which of them would have been ridden by Geraghty, McManus’s retained jockey, had he not been ruled out of the meeting by injury.

Fehily would have been an obvious choice for Buveur D’Air had Geraghty opted for Yanworth, however, having steered him to a Grade One success at Aintree last season, and he rode a cool race on the 5-1 chance on the way to his second Champion Hurdle success.

Noel Fehily and Buveur D’Air after the race. Photograph: David Davies/PA

“I thought early on that he was doing too much, that maybe I’d taken too long to get him switched off, but once I got to the top of the hill I was very happy,” Fehily said. “He travelled great down the hill and that was the one part of the race I was worried about.”

Buveur D’Air will need to step up to senior company if he goes back over fences next year, having lost his novice status with his defeat of Cloudy Dream at Haydock, but his success here means he is likely to spend at least one more season over timber.

“It will be difficult not to stay over hurdles,” Henderson said. “He’s a novice for the rest of this season so he could go to Aintree next month for a novice chase but that would be a bit bizarre.

“If Aintree was soft, then the two-and-a-half mile hurdle there might be perfect for him.”

Buveur D’Air is the early 6-1 favourite for next season’s Champion Hurdle, with Faugheen, the winner in 2015, next in the list at 10-1.

Wednesday’s tips, by Chris Cook

Cheltenham

1.30 Bacardys 2.10 Acapella Bourgeois 2.50 Automated (nap) 3.30 Douvan 4.10 Cantlow 4.50 Divin Bere (nb) 5.30 Cause Toujours

Huntingdon

1.45 So Celebre 2.25 Miss Oscarose 3.05 Meribel Millie 3.45 Zante 4.25 Celtic Tune 5.05 Beneagles 5.40 Solomon Grey

Newcastle

5.50 Feeltherhythm 6.20 The Grey Warrior 6.50 Mama Africa 7.20 Poetic Queen 7.50 Al Hawraa 8.20 Inaam 8.50 Spirit Of Zebedee

Southwell

1.20 Fiery Spice 1.55 Clock Chimes 2.35 Piazon 3.15 Bibliotheca 3.55 Vroom 4.35 Viva Verglas 5.15 Royal Holiday