Best performances in your lifetime

So then, team, what are the best single equine performances, either on the Flat or in the NH sphere, that you’ve witnessed in your lifetime??? I’ve come up with what I believe to be my top 5. In reverse order they are:

5. Kauto Star’s 36 length demolition of the 2009 ‘King George VI Chase’ field
Kauto Star’s 4th ‘King George VI’ win and one in which he simply went further and further, and I do mean further and further, clear after hitting the front just prior to entering the home straight. A relentless demonstration of stamina allied to speed and outstanding jumping as Kauto Star dismissed the opposition with nonchalant ease.

4. Master Minded’s romp in the 2008 ‘Champion Chase’
This is the single best performance that I have ever seen in the NH sphere. The 5YO arrived at the Festival as potentially the next ‘big thing’ and confirmed such predictions with a stunning performance. After a dual with the previous year’s winner, Voy Pur Ustedes, in which Master Minded travelled supremely well he took the lead approaching the 4th last and then simply left the opposition toiling in his wake to win by 19 lengths. A totally awesome display of jumping and speed.

3. Frankel’s astounding 2011 2,000 Guineas win
I’ve never seen a Classic won in this manner and it was a truly spellbinding performance. Frankel set off at a blistering pace went further and further clear and then maintained this level right to the line. There were several times during the mile contest when you had to wonder when he would fold but he simply kept powering forwards. Breathtaking.

2. Lady Aurelia’s ‘point and shoot’ in the 2016 Queen Mary
Awesome performances in which Lady Aurelia burst from the stalls to grab an early lead. She maintained a length or so lead until shaken up just over a furlong out and then displayed a burst of speed unlike almost anything seen before to storm 7 lengths clear in just a matter of strides. A lead she maintain to the line despite her rider taking things easy, in the final 75 yards, and even saluting the dear old crowd. You don’t expect to see 2YO races at Royal Ascot won by 7 lengths but in this instance you did despite almost failing to believe what you were seeing. Astounding.

1. Arazi’s round the outside blitzing run to win the 1991 ‘Breeders Cup Juvenile’
The performance that first got me interested in racing whilst still in short trousers. It remains the best performance I’ve ever seen on a racetrack and watching the heat I was so shocked at what I was witnessing that my monocle popped out. Slowly away the old boy found himself at the back of the field and trapped out wide. Steadily manoeuvred onto the rail he began to slice through the majority of the field before then returning to the outside to blitz past those remaining in front of him. Taking the lead just before the home turn Arazi then simply galloped further and further away from his rivals to come home in glorious isolation. The greatest ever performance in my humble opinion. The race also coined one on the best quotes I’ve ever heard. The owner was asked if Arazi was the best horse he’d ever owned. ‘Sir’, the old boy responded, ‘This is the best horse anyone has ever owned!’.

Others to go close to the list would be many of Sprinter Sacre’s successes, Binocular winning his ‘Champion Hurdle’ (was only one CH but with average luck would have been 4), Long Run’s CGC for the greatest, and I do mean greatest, of connections, Hardy Eustace’s Champion Hurdle victory, Tataniano’s Grade 2 novice win at Cheltenham (lowly race in comparison to some mentioned but his performance was astounding that day), Dubai Millenium’s Royal Ascot stormer, Montjeu’s Arc, Tiggy Wiggy’s ‘Super Sprint’ success, Fair Eva’s demolition job in the ‘Princess Margaret’ and St Nicholas Abbey’s ‘Racing Post’ romp.

 

How far back are we allowed to go, Sir Barney? I promise it won't be the 19th Century. Will still take a fair bit of thought though, not an easy task at all.

Ah, sorry, just noticed "in your lifetime", then I have to include the 19th Century!

 

When I saw the heading it had me thinking back to when I was in my late 20's/early 30's. Then I read the first post and realised it was equine related.

 

1. Kauto Star's final King George VI Chase win - nearly had a heart attack cheering him home
2. Pebbles winning at the Breeders Cup, in record time. I was in Toronto at the time but couldn't get to see her live as I would have missed my flight home. Watched it in our hotel room (having already checked out) - the room maid must have thought we were crazy leaping around the room
3. Ribot's second Arc. It's a long story. Plans to stop him winning didn't work because he was simply awesome
4. Dessie winning the Gold Cup. What a horse, 2 miles to Gold Cup victory in the mud. Lifted him home from "inside" the tele
5. Enable's first Arc. Stunning filly. Really admire her; lovely conformation, lovely temperament, powerful. Just perfect. And I was there to cheer her home

Apologies to all those lovely horses I haven't included. Best race I saw live was Grundy v Bustino

 

Swanny, can be from any point in your life. Diomed’s Derby or indeed even Arkle Himself.

 

Oh bugger, I fully intended to include Harbinger

Vaguely Noble was awesome

I'll have those 6th and 7th

I might have included Crisp if he had won

 

Many the same as above
Dancing Brave course record in the Arc, what a finishing kick.
Dayjur course record in the Nunthorpe, a machine.
Sprinter Sacre coming back to his best at Chelters when we all thought he was gone, barging through the vap on the turn in.
Denman in the Henessey and GC, the tank blasted them away.
Desert Orchid Gold cup, sheer guts.
Arazi was sensational in the BC.
Frankel 2000G demolition, a mile turned into 6f.
Shergar Derby, you will need a telescope to see the rest.
Lester Piggot BC on Royal Academy, would you absolutely credit it said GG.

 

Squire winning the Baker Tilly Handicap at Newmarket in May 2015, nothing else has ever come close to giving me heart failure and such extreme joy.

 

Denman's Gold Cup win. Not only was it a fantastic performance, attending the Gold Cup Friday for the first time got me out of a training course which involved copious dollops of role play. Watching that superb equine performance was enhanced even further by the knowledge that I was dodging that particular crock of ****e. Numbers 2-5 to follow when I've given it some thought.

 

My top 5 performances (apart from the obv ones)

5) Cue Cards King George win and to head Vautour in the final strides to really cement himself as a top 3m chaser after all the doubts he really stayed

4) Quevega- her final Cheltenham- she looked in trouble (kind of anyway) the moment she hit the front after the last the crowd roared! What an atmosphere that was

3) Battash - win in the abbaye to win a 5f race by that margin was extremely impressive especially after his disappointment the race before

2)Highland Reels win in the breeders cup an absolute masterclass ride from Seamie to steal the race from the front

1) probably my fav performance of recent- VAUTOURS demolition in the JLT that was poetry in motion. Shame we never saw his true potential

 

And not a single mention of Secretariat's Belmont Stakes win. The 2.24 time for a dirt track has never been bettered in US racing history.

 

Frankel's Judmonte was pretty amazing - couldn't be convinced he'd get the extra trip but boy did he do it in style against a two time Coronation Cup and Breeder's cup winner..
I'd also go with Sea the Stars winning the Arc - the one time he ever looked remotely in trouble then Kinane pushed the button and bang!

 

This is exactly my problem in a nutshell. I just cannot condense it into 5 places, impossible at the moment, and would be unfair to many great racehorses left out. Would have to go to 19th and 20th, at the very least! My first pick would have to go to the great Sea-Bird II because of his hugely impressive win in the 1965 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (let alone his facile Derby win at Epsom that same year) in a star-studded international field run in atrocious conditions by a corrected 4-1/2 lengths, in spite of hanging badly left in the final 200 metres. His Timeform rating of 145 probably still remains second to Frankel's 147; not sure about that though. Guess Frankel would have to be my second choice for his demolition job in the 2000 Guineas, and his equally impressive performance in the Juddmonte. Then I run into trouble, just too many great racehorses to analyse. A difficult task, Sir Barney, but an excellent thread notwithstanding.

In closing, here is a summary of Sea-Bird II's Arc win from Wikipedia:

"In the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Sea-Bird II faced a very strong field, including Irish Derby winner Meadow Court, Preakness winner Tom Rolfe, French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club) winner Reliance, Prix de Diane winner Blabla and Russian Derby winner Anilin. Starting at odds of 6/5, Sea Bird won easily despite veering across the track, with jockey Pat Glennon patting him down the neck in the final 100 yards, by six lengths (though photographs of the finish show it to have been closer to four and a half lengths) from Reliance. Five lengths further back in third place was Diatome (though photographs show it to have been closer to four lengths), who went on to win the Washington, D.C. International. Fourth place went to Free Ride, fifth was Anilin and sixth was Tom Rolfe."

 

Absolutely right, the task is nigh-on impossible IMHO. How about that great mare Makybe Diva's three-wins-in-a-row Melbourne Cup, and a like performance from Best Mate in the Cheltenham Gold Cup (sorry, I don't go for that oft-stated three-times a sub-standard race, that is bullshit, and as for Arkle giving him 28 lbs and a beating, get away with yer SA! )

 

I decided that it would be a better twist on this topic to include the caveat of actually being at the track on the day of the performance, as it also helped to narrow the time frame down to the last thirty years and in recent years I have been reduced to five or six visits a year by the morons running the sport rearranging all my favourite old fixtures so I do not go. There are some famous names missing here (e.g. Reference Point, Halling, Galikova) because when I saw them was not their best performance.

It is strange how two of these appear to have some common ground. In chronological order:

Dayjur – Nunthorpe Stakes, York, 1990
Once they had realised that sprinting was his game, he had developed a habit of just leaving the gate and his opponents behind. This day the race was over after a furlong and Willie Carson could calculate his share of the prize money and start puffing on a celebratory cigar long before the finishing line. In fairness, there were no good sprinters around that year and he had seen off the best French horse at Royal Ascot. Just a shame that he is always remembered because of that shadow at Churchill Downs, rather than as the dominant sprinter of a generation.

Rodrigo De Triano – Juddmonte International, York, 1992
Do I have a soft spot for this one because of who was aboard? Robert Sangster’s chestnut had collected the 2000 Guineas and Irish 2000 Guineas before defeat in the Derby and the St James’s Palace Stakes and here he was trying ten furlongs on the Knavesmire and taking on his elders. His jockey did not have a difficult job holding him up at the back then bringing him smoothly through to beat Henry Cecil’s filly All At Sea with the Derby winner Dr Devious behind and favourite Kooyonga a long last (if I recall she was found to be in season).

Zafonic – 2000 Guineas, Newmarket, 1993
Khalid Abdullah’s French trained colt returned to the scene of his Dewhurst victory as a warm favourite to collect the colts’ first Classic, with the owner present and putting on a brave smile as betting pundit John McCririck fawned before him as Pat Eddery steered Andre Fabre’s colt to a commanding victory over Luca Cumani’s Barathea, who turned out to be not a bad miler himself. Fabre had Zafonic trained to the day. I do remember it was raining during the race and I only got one decent photo as some numpty standing along the rail from me insisted on waving a racecard that I got several times.

Sea The Stars – Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Longchamp, 2009
It would be fair to say that I was not the only one surprised when Sea The Stars won his Derby trial – the 2000 Guineas (was there that day) – but he then progressed through the middle distance Group 1 schedule until eventually arriving in Paris. In what looked a very good race in a very competitive season, he yet again did all that was necessary to win, without winning by any exaggerated margin, and assured himself of the champion’s crown. I remember Irish Derby winner Fame And Glory was amongst the vanquished as was Dar Re Mi (disqualified winner of the Vermeille) and ‘unbeaten’ Prix de Diane winner Stacelita.

Frankel – 2000 Guineas, Newmarket, 2011
So much for the pacemaker... he missed the kick and the horse he was supposed to assist was leaving a cloud of dust for the rest of the field to contest second. I was standing just past the winning post that day with my camera but the photo of the finish only had one horse in it – it looked more like a horse cantering to the post. Winning Classics that easily might be commonplace on the dirt of the American Triple Crown but it just does not happen here unless you are a great – or the greatest.

 

Good to see SEA THE STARS getting some mentions, right up there on my list!

 

Erm, QMII, nit-picking again, but I think the 1990 Breeders' Cup Sprint and the infamous shadow took place at Belmont Park, New York?

 

You are right. My memory is failing me. I should have looked it up. I was thinking it was the shadow of the clock tower on the grandstand at Churchill Downs but it was Belmont Park – Safely Kept the beneficiary.

You could not have picked me up on my other error, I suspect. I meant Goldikova not half-sister Galikova when I mentioned famous missing names. I saw Freddie Head’s mare thrice and she was beaten twice: by Makfi in the Prix Jacques Le Marois and Dream Ahead in the Prix de la Forêt.

I should probably go and fact check the rest now.