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King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes 1975

admin May 9, 2025

The King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on July 26, 1975 was soon dubbed the ‘Race of the Century’. The mile-and-a-half contest featured a stellar field, including Dahlia, who had won the race is both 1973 and 1974, Dibidale, who had won the Irish Oaks the previous season, and Star Appeal, who had already won the Eclipse Stakes and would go on to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

However, despite the strength of the opposition, the race developed into a showdown between Grundy, trained by Peter Walwyn and ridden by Pat Eddery, and Bustino, trained by Dick Hern and ridden by Joe Mercer. Grundy had won both the Derby and the Irish Derby in taking style, while Bustino, who had won the St. Leger as a three-year-old, had broken the course record when winning the Coronation Cup – run over the same course and distance as the Derby – en route to Ascot.

In an effort to expose any stamina deficiencies in his main rival, Hern employed not one but two pacemakers, Highest and Kinglet, who took the field along at a blistering gallop for the first mile of so. Rounding the home turn, Kinglet finally capitulated, and at the top of the home straight – which, at Ascot, is just two and half furlongs long – Bustino held a definite advantage over Grundy.

Approaching the final furlong, it became clear that the pair had the race between them, but it was not until the final 150 yards that Grundy, the three-year-old, put his head in front. Even when he did, Bustino, the four-year-old, rallied under maximum pressure and looked, momentarily, like he might get back up. He didn’t, though, and Grundy passed the post half a length to the good, in a time of 2:26.98, thereby smashing the course record.

Stayers’ Hurdle 1999

admin May 9, 2025

On March 18, 1999 – the same day on which Paul Nicholls won his first Cheltenham Gold Cup with See More Business – a dozen horses went to post for the three-mile hurdling championship, the Stayers’ Hurdle. Deano’s Beeno, trained by Martin Pipe and ridden by Tony McCoy, and Le Coudray, trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Charlie Swan, shared joint-favouritism at 2/1, with Lady Rebecca, trained by Venetia Williams and ridden by Norman Williamson, next best at 3/1 and 16/1 bar the front three in the market.

Deano’s Beeno was the only one of the market leaders who failed to figure in the finish, paying the price for setting a strong pace and weakening to finish only ninth of 10 finishers. Le Coudray and Lady Rebecca, though, went head-to-head on the run to the final flight and Le Coudray looked all over when taking a two-length lead inside the final hundred yards. However, in a classic case of “It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over”, Anzum, who had been noted starting “pick up for a place” by commentator Graham Goode approaching the final flight, produced a strong run to deny Le Coudray by a neck.

Trained by David Nicholson and ridden by Richard Johnson, Anzum had looked a bona fide 40/1 chance beforehand, having finished fully 52 lengths behind Lady Rebecca, on the same terms, in the Cleeve Hurdle, also at Cheltenham, two months previously. He would, however, follow up in the Champion Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown a month later, for all that Le Coudray, who was sent off at 1/2 for that contest, finihsed distressed after being pulled up entering the straight. The following December, having been transferred to the care of Nicholson’s former assistant, Alan King, Anzum also beat Deano’s Beano, at level weights, in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot.

Kentucky Derby 2009

admin May 8, 2025

The 2009 renewal of the ‘Run for the Roses’ featured 19 runners and was run, as usual, over a mile and quarter on dirt at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on May 2, 2009. Run on going officially described as ‘sloppy’, following overnight rain, the race was memorable for a long-priced winner, a wide winning margin and slightly bizarre television commentary.

The winner was the unheralded Mind That Bird, trained by Bennie ‘Chip’ Woolley Jr. in New Mexico and ridden by Louisian-born Calvin ‘Bo’Rail’ Borel. The son of Birdstone had won his first three starts, all at Woodbine, for David Cotey, but finished last of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, following his transfer to Richard Mandella and had been beaten on the first two starts of his three-year-old campaign, both at Sunland Park, for Woolley Jr.

Down the back straight, Mind That Bird was, rather dismissively, described by announcer Tom Durkin as ‘well behind the rest of them’. However, on the approach the home turn, apparently unseen by Durkin, Mind That Bird started to make rapid headway from the rear of the field, such that he was in eighth position setting off up the home straight. Switched off, and back onto, the rail to avoid a tiring rival, Mind That Bird actually took the lead with just over a furlong to run but, Durkin, still apparently oblivious to his presence, continued to focus his attention on the better-fancied pair Pioneerof The Nile and Musket Man.

It was only when the eventual winner was three lengths ahead and drawing further clear that Durkin acknowledged, “er, Mind That Bird” in the lead. The winning margin was eventually seven lengths, the widest since 1946, and the winning odds, 51/1, were, at the time, the second-longest in the history of the Kentucky Derby. The aoforementioned Pioneerof The Nile finished second, coming out best in a three-way photograph with Musket Man and Papa Clem.

Coral Cup 1997

admin May 8, 2025

The Coral Cup, run over two miles and five furlongs on the Old Course at Cheltenham, has been a fixture of the Cheltenham Festival since 1993 and is currently scheduled as the third race on day two, aka ‘Ladies Day’. Nowadays classified as a ‘Premier Handicap’ by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), the Coral Cup has a safety limit of 26 and, as such, is invariably fiercely competitive.

Martin Pipe, who trained the inaugural winner of the Coral Cup, Olympian, collected a £50,000 bonus from Sunderlands bookmakers, having saddled the some horse to win the Imperial Cup at Sandown Park four days earlier. Pipe also enjoyed a memorable Coral Cup in 1997, when he saddled four of the 28 runners, the pick of which – albeit still at 16/1 – was Big Strand, ridden by Australian jockey Jamie Evans.

Approaching the second-last flight of hurdles, Allegation, ridden by Tony McCoy, the most likely of the Pipe-trained contigent to prevail and, indeed, jumping the final flight he and Castle Sweep, trained by David Nicholson and ridden by Richard Johnson, held a four-length lead over their rivals and looked destined to fight out the finish. Castle Sweep made a mistake at the last, handing the initiative back to Allegation, while out of shot Big Strand was just starting to make significant headway.

Somehow, on the run-in, ‘The Fat Antipodean’, as Evans was affectionately, if a little unkindly, known at home, employed his trademark ‘windmill’ to good effect and conjured a withering run out of Big Strand. Carrying the minimum weight of 10 stone and in receipt of 20lb and 28lb from Allegation and Castle Sweep respectively, Big Strand, as Channel 4 commentator Graham Goode put it, cut “through the pack like a knife”, flying home to deny Allegation by a short-head, with Castle Sweep a further head behind in third place.

Cheltenham Gold Cup 1964

admin May 8, 2025

The Cheltenham Gold Cup run on March 7, 1964 featured the highly-anticipated showdown between Mill House, trained by Fulke Walwyn, and Arkle, trained by Tom Dreaper. Mill House had won the 1963 Cheltenham Gold Cup, as a six-year-old, and comfortably beaten Arkle, who was in receipt of 5lb, in the Hennessy Gold Cup (now the Coral Cup) at Newbury on their first meeting the previous November. However, Arkle slipped badly on landing after the third-last fence, and his jockey, Pat Taaffe, said later, “I always thought after the Hennessy that Arkle was the best horse if they were to meet again.”

In any event, on a bitterly cold, snowy day, in a field of just four runners, Mill House was sent off 8/13 favourite to defend his title, with Arkle at 7/4, King’s Nephew at 20/1 and Pas Seul (who’d won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1960 and finished close second in 1961) at 50/1. Mill House made the running and the ‘big two’ drew clear of their toiling rivals on the downhill run to the third-last fence. Rounding the home turn, Willie Robinson reached for his whip on Mill House as he was joined, and passed, by Arkle.

Arkle jumped the last a length to the good and only had to be kept up to his work on the run-in to win, going away, by five lengths.Passing the post, Sir Peter O’Sullevan said, rather prophetically, “This is the champion. This is the best we’ve seen for a long time.” For the record, Pas Seul finished third, a further 25 lengths away.

Arkle would, of course, win the 1965 Cheltenham Gold Cup, too, beating Mill House by 20 lengths and, in the absence of the ‘Big Horse’, go on to complete a hat-trick in the ‘Blue Riband’ event, at prohibitive odds of 1/10, in 1966. Cath Walwyn, wife of Fulke, once said in an interview, “It was the biggest shock of Fulke’s career…He thought he had the horse of the century – but he hadn’t.”