Category: Horses

Frankel was, by any metric, the greatest racehorse in history and the details of his flawless, 14-race career have been well chronicled. Suffice to say that his trainer, the late Sir Henry Cecil, who trained 25 Classic winners, including Reference Point, said of him, ‘I cannot believe in the history of racing that there has ever been a better racehorse.’

Sadly, Cecil died of cancer in June, 2013, so what he would have made of Baaeed we’ll never know. Neverthless, Baaeed has drawn comparisons with Frankel after winning all six starts during his 3-year-old campaign, including the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. In fact, it was in the latter race, in 2011, that Frankel earned his highest Timeform rating up to that point, 143, so a direct comparison with Baaeed is straightforward enough.

By contrast, Baaeed finished his 3-year-old campaign with a Timeform rating of just 130, so was clearly some way behind his illustrious predecessor at that stage of his career. However, it is worth noting that Baaeed was a late foal and, unlike Frankel, was considered too immature to race as a juvenile. In fact, the son of Sea The Stars did not make his racecourse debut until June 7, 2021, two months after his ‘real’ third birthday on April 8, so there’s still no telling how much improvement he has left in him. In October, 2021, trainer William Haggas confirmed that Baaeed would stay in training as a 4-year-old, saying, ‘It’s terrific to have one of the best 3-year-olds in Europe, probably.’

The joint-eleventh highest rated steeplechaser in the history of Timeform, Master Oats is best remembered for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, by 15 lengths, in 1995. Indeed, prior to the victory of First Flow in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot in January, 2021, he was the last Grade 1 winner for Gloucestershire trainer Kim Bailey.

Master Oats also ran three times, without success, in the Grand National. On his first appearance, in 1994, he fell at the thirteenth fence, before finishing seventh in 1995 and fifth in 1997, both times under top weight of 11st 10lb. However, he did win the Welsh National, albeit a hastily-rearranged version, run over 3 miles 5½ furlongs at Newbury, on New Year’s Eve, 1994, after the original meeting at Chepstow was abandoned, due to waterlogging, four days earlier.

Fresh from a 4-length victory over Party Politics in the Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow on his reappearance earlier that month, Master Oats was sent off 5/2 favourite for the Welsh National and never gave his supporters and anxious moment. Held up at the rear of the field by regular partner Norman Williamson, Master Oats was still hard on the bridle when taking the lead at the fourth-last fence; thereafter, he sauntered clear and, despite being eased on the run-in, still won impressively, by 20 lengths from Earth Summit, with Party Politics a further 25 lengths behind in third place.

The short answer is agonisingly close. Of course, Dawn Run remains the one and only horse to have completed the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double but, five years before her historic victory over Wayward Lad in 1986, Night Nurse had his own shot at Cheltenham Festival immortality.

Trained by Peter Easterby in Great Habton, near Malton, North Yorkshire, Night Nurse won the Champion Hurdle twice, in 1976 and 1977. On the second occasion, he defeated such luminaries as Monksfield, Sea Pigeon and Bird’s Nest and, three weeks later, became the highest-rated hurdler in the history of Timeform when dead-heating with Monksfield in the Templegate Hurdle at Aintree.

Sent over fences at the start of the 1978/79 season, Night Nurse flopped badly in the 1979 Cheltenham Gold Cup, won by stable companion Alverton, and subsequently suffered a serious tendon injury, which kept him off the course for just over a year. Nevertheless, he returned, as a 9-year-old in 1980/81 and, having looked an unlucky loser when unseating rider at the final fence in the King George VI Chase at Kempton, won by Silver Buck, was sent off 6/1 joint-second favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Having put in what Timeform called ‘one of the best rounds of jumping ever seen in the race’, Night Nurse led stable companion Little Owl and Silver Buck over the third-last fence. However, he was relegated to third place at the second-last and, although he battled back past the weakening Silver Buck on the run-in, he couldn’t reel in Little Owl, who went on to win by 1½ lengths.

Sadly, Shergar will always be best remembered for his abduction, at gunpoint, from the Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare on the evening of February 8, 1983, rather than anything he achieved on the racecourse. A series of ransom demands were made, probably by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), but none were met and Shergar was never seen again.

Anyway, in happier times, Shergar was one of the truly great racehorses in the second half of the twentieth century. In 1981, as a three-year-old, he won the Sandown Classic Trial by 10 lengths, Chester Vase by 12 lengths, Derby by 10 lengths (still the widest winning margin in the history of the Epsom Classic), Irish Derby by 4 lengths and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by 4 lengths. In so doing, Shergar achieved a Timeform rating of 140 which, at the time, had been bettered only by Sea-Bird, Brigadier Gerard, Tudor Minstrel, Abernant, Ribot and Mill Reef.

However, Shergar was beaten twice in his eight-race career. On his second start as a two-year-old, he was beaten 2½ lengths by subsquent Dante Stakes and Benson and Hedges Gold Cup winner, Beldale Flutter, in the Futurity Stakes at Doncaster. On his sixth and final start as a three-year-old, he was sent off at odds-on for the St. Leger, also at Doncaster, but ran inexplicably badly, trailing in fourth, beaten 11½ lengths, behind largely unconsidered 25/1 chance Cut Above.