Aldaniti
The fairytale Grand National success of Aldaniti, trained by Josh Gifford and ridden by Bob Champion, in 1981 was immortalised in the 1984 film ‘Champions’, released by Embassy Pictures. Two years previously, Champion had been diagnosed with testicular cancer, requiring surgery and, in his own words, “barbaric” chemotherapy, while Aldaniti had suffered a career-threatening leg injury at Sandown Park, which kept him off the racecourse for over a year. However, they both recovered sufficiently to take their place at Aintree on April 4, 1981 where, as 10/1 second favourite, Aldaniti duly prevailed, beating Spartan Missile by four lengths.
Arkle
The best part of six decades after he ran his last race, the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on December 27, 1966, Arkle remains the yardstick by which steeplechasers are measured. Owned by Anne Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster and trained by Tom Dreaper in Co. Dublin, the horse known simply as ‘Himself’ in racing circles won 27 of his 35 races over hurdles and fences, notably including the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running, in 1964, 1965 and 1996. His Timeform Annual Rating of 212 remains the highest ever awarded to a steeplechaser, 2lb superior to his stable companion Flyingbolt and fully 30lb superior to any other steeplechaser since the early sixties.
Desert Orchid
A dashing grey – in fact, almost white – steeplechaser, trained by David Elsworth in Fordingbridge, Wiltshire, Desert Orchid was arguably the most popular racehorse in British history. In his heyday, in the eighties and early nineties, he won 34 of his 70 races over hurdles and fences, but it was over the larger obstacles that ‘Dessie’, as he was known to his countless fans, would make his name. He won the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park four times, in 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990, but achieved his greatest triumph on an otherwise dismal day at Cheltenham on March 16, 1989, when he overcame the hindrance of racing left-handed, on unfavoured heavy going, to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Frankel
Owned by the late Khalid Abdullah and trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil, Frankel retired unbeaten in 14 starts after winning his tenth Group 1 race, the Champion Stakes at Ascot on October 20, 2012. A six-length winner of the 2,000 Guineas as a three-year-old, Frankel was voted Cartier Horse of the Year in 2011 and 2012. His Timeform Annual Rating of 147 remains the highest-ever awarded to a Flat horse since ratings were first published in ‘Racehorses of 1947’ in 1948. Following his final victory, Cecil said of Frankel, “He’s the best I’ve ever had, the best I’ve ever seen. I’d be very surprised if there’s ever been better.”
Kauto Star
The joint-fourth highest-rated steeplechaser of the Timeform era, alongside the 1963 Cheltenham Gold winner Mill House and behind only Arkle, Flyingbolt and dual Champion Chaser Sprinter Sacre, Kauto Star had the distinction of being the first horse to win at least one Grade 1 race for seven seasons, which he did between 2004/05 and 2011/12. He won 23 of his 41 races over hurdles and fences, including 19 of his 31 steeplechases, over distances ranging from a mile and seven-and-a-half furlongs to three miles and two-and-a-half furlongs. Career highlights included winning the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park a record five times, in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011, and the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice, in 2007 and 2009.
Nijinsky
Legendary jockey Lester Piggott, who won the Flat Jockeys’ Championship 11 times between 1960 and 1982 and rode 4,493 winners in Britain alone in a career spanning six decades, once said of Nijinsky, ” I think Nijinsky probably on his day was the most brilliant horse I’ve ever ridden.” In 1970, Piggott rode Nijinsky to victory in the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St. Leger, not to mention the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, thereby making him the first – and, at the time of writing, the last – horse since Bahram, in 1935, to win the Triple Crown. Nijinsky was beaten just twice in his 13-race career, on his last two starts, in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Champion Stakes but, unsurprisingly, was voted British Horse of the Year.
Red Rum
Arguably the most famous racehorse in British history, Red Rum remains the only horse ever to have won the Grand National three times. Trained by Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain, ‘Rummie’, as the horse was affectionately known, won back-to-back renewals of the celebrated steeplechase in 1973 and 1974, making him the first horse since Reynoldstown, in 1936, to do so. He was thwarted in his hat-trick bid by L’Escargot in 1975 and, again, by Rag Trade in 1976, but returned to Aintree, as a 12-year-old, in 1977 to record his unprecedented third win, by 25 lengths. Hos retirement from racing, on the eve of 1978 Grand National, was (no pun intended) national news.
Seabiscuit
The story of Seabiscuit, as recounted in the factual book ‘Seabiscuit: An American Legend’, written by Laura Hillenbrand and published in 1999, is a rags-to-riches tale for the ages. Foaled in Lexington, Kentucky in 1933, in the trough of the Great Depression, the aptly-named son of Hard Tack still a maiden after 17 races, but emerged from relative obscurity to win 33 of his 89 races in all and a then-record $437,730 in prize money. On November 1, 1938, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Seabiscuit met 1937 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year War Admiral in the so-called ‘Match of the Century’, over nine-and-a-half furlongs. Despite being sent off at 2/1 against War Admiral at 1/4, Seabiscuit drew away in the closing stages to win by four lengths, breaking the track record in the process.
Secretariat
Nicknamed ‘Big Red’, Secretariat is famous not only for winning the American Triple Crown – that is, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes – in 1973, but also for still, at the time of writing, holding the record for the fastest winning time in all three races. Indeed, his 31-length defeat of a non-descript field, at odds of 1/10, in the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York on June 9, 1973 certanly made an impression of Kent Hollingsworth, editor of ‘The Blood-Horse’. Hollingsworth wrote, “He [Secretariat] won by a sixteenth of a mile! I saw it. I have to believe it.” Named Horse of the Year in 1972 and 1973, Secretariat won 16 of his 21 races and $1.32 million in prize money.
Shergar
On the racecourse, Shergar is best remembered for his still-record, 10-length win in the 1981 Derby, for which he was sent off odds-on favourite after winning the Sandown Classic Trial and the ChesterVase by similarly wide margins. Indeed, his superiority at Epsom caused commentator Peter Bromley to exclaim, “There’s only one horse in it. You need a telescope to see the rest!” Off the racecourse, the son of Great Nephew is best remembered for being kidnapped from the Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare, where he had been syndicated for £10 million, by armed gunmen in 1983. The kidnappers, probably members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), demanded a ransom of £2 million, which was never paid, and Shergar was never seen alive again.
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