David Ord, Ben Linfoot and Matt Brocklebank take a trip down memory lane and pick out 10 of their favourite Breeders' Cup memories ahead of this year's extravaganza at Keeneland.
1990: Dayjur denied by Safely Kept
The best sprinter I’ve seen who conquered everything thrown at him.
From Royal Ascot to York, Paris to New York. Apart from the shadows cast by the Belmont Park grandstand 100 yards from the finish on the dirt track. The fastest racehorse in the world, doing what he was bred to do, jumped not once, but twice.
Spooked and startled by what he thought was in front of him, he hurdled thin air. Willie Carson sat still, somehow keeping the partnership intact, but through came Safely Kept to deny Dick Hern and Hamdan Al Maktoum a famous victory.
It hurt then, it hurts still.
But for the first six furlongs Dayjur overcame a strong field, an alien surface and a wide draw to stamp his class on proceedings. Moments later he went into Breeders’ Cup folklore. He’d have gone into it had remained grounded too. (David Ord)
1990: Piggott stars on Royal Academy
But even the Dayjur story was to be eclipsed on that unforgettable New York evening.
For a few hours later Lester Piggott jumped aboard Royal Academy for his old ally Vincent O’Brien and rolled the years back to win the Mile. He had retired in 1985 after a glittering career that would never be matched and took up training.
But that venture was brought to a shuddering halt by a prison sentence for tax fraud and in the October of 1990 he announced he was returning to race-riding. Two weeks into arguably the most surprising comeback in the history of the sport, here he was being cheered into the winners’ enclosure.
Forget Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, the Ballydoyle golden era, the irresistible partnership with a young Henry Cecil, the whip-stealing in France, in fact everything else.
His finest hour came with the rhythmical drive that carried Royal Academy to the front 50 yards from the post in front of a disbelieving worldwide audience. (DO)