That's all really cool, Pike, I never hear anything about American horse racing over here. That first one reminds me of the legendary Shergar in the 1981 Epsom Derby. Starting at a price of 10/11, which is as close to an absolute dead certainty as you can get in a race with 18 horses running (the second favourite was 7-1), he ran the first two-thirds of the race at a canter in 3rd place, before suddenly lighting up a rocket and finishing ten lengths ahead, which is still a record. Of course, he's even more legendary for getting horsenapped and never seen again a few years later.




My favourite race, though, is Desert Orchid winning the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup. A bit of exposition first, for the uninitiated.

Seeing as we're using American football comparisons, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is the Superbowl of British, nay, all jump racing. The Grand National may be more famous, but mostly features older horses by owners wanting them to go out in a blaze of glory. Desert Orchid was a popular grey racehorse, who had turned up on the scene and had started winning some big races in the years coming up to this race. In 1989, he was entered into the Gold Cup race. Now, this race is a long one - 3 miles and 2 furlongs - where Desert Orchid had only really raced 2 mile courses up until this point. Many thought he would struggle to get the stamina. To make things worse, in the days leading up to and during the race, it had been chucking it down with heavy rain, wind and snow all over the course, pretty much turning it into a bog. Dessie hated running in the mud.

The race started and Desert Orchid, as he always liked doing, ran straight to the front. He was amongst the leaders for the whole race, but as it came to the last four or five fences he started to tire. The only other horses in contention at this late stage were eventual third-placed Charter Party and Yahoo, who loved nothing more than running in muddy ground. As it came to the last few fences you could see he was absolutely exhausted, but was still holding it alongside Yahoo. But as they came to the final stretch, just when it looked like he had nothing left, seeing the finishing post made him somehow pull something from somewhere and catch up to Yahoo to win the race. It was incredible. I've put two videos of the same thing, mainly because the commentary in the second is brilliant (same bloke from the video above). Still get chills every time I watch it.