David Ord and Richard Mann discuss their favourite memories from Haydock Park but Kauto Star hasn't made the cut - get in touch with your best Haydock moments.
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David Ord - Giants face off in Sprint Cup
The 1990 Sprint Cup is one of the races that will never fade.
It brought together three brilliant horses. Dayjur, off the back of a clock-busting demolition of his field in the Nunthorpe at York, July Cup winner Royal Academy and Prix Maurice de Gheest heroine Dead Certain.
The former was sent off the 1/2 favourite as he ventured back up to six furlongs for the first time in Group One compan. For four-and-a-half of those six he threatened to light up Haydock as he had Royal Ascot and the Knavesmire on his previous two starts.
To the front as the stalls opened, he cruised through the contest and put the race to bed when sauntering four lengths clear of his rivals inside the final quarter.
In behind John Reid and Royal Academy had run into traffic problems but once clear, began to eat into the advantage.
At the line a length-and-a-half separated the pair. The official form book said the runner-up was given too much to do. Willie Carson insisted he was looking after the winner with the race in safe keeping.
The fact the pair had pulled five lengths clear of the third confirmed what we already sensed, here were two world class three-year-olds.
And they were to prove just that at Belmont Park in the fall of that year.
The drama on the New York track on 27th October was unparalleled.
Dayjur was first up and his sheer class saw him overcome a wide draw, the speed of the home team from the gates and a switch to a dirt surface, to thunder into the final furlong with the Sprint in safe keeping.
Then, in a moment replayed almost as much as Devon Loch’s Aintree abolition, at full flight, travelling at 40 miles an hour, he jumped not one, but two shadows on the track. Willie Carson kept the partnership intact but Safely Kept snuck back up to claim the winners’ cheque.
European race fans were dazed – only for an hour and three-quarters later his Haydock victim to play the key part in arguably the greatest sporting comeback for all time.
Lester Piggott only returned to the saddle on 15th October after five years out. That spell included a brief training career and spell in prison for tax fraud.
He may have been the greatest jockey to ever throw his leg across a horse but even he could have been excused nerves and rustiness as he climbed aboard Royal Academy.
Just to see him back there, on the world stage, riding for another racing legend Vincent O’Brien, was special. Here were two men who’d cast a huge shadow over the racing world for over two decades, their names forever associated with the likes of Nijinsky, The Minstrel and Sir Ivor combining again for one final hurrah.
What unfolded down the stretch, with Piggott’s rhythmic drive carrying his partner to the front inside the final furlong for a cosy success, was beyond belief.
The king was back on his throne on a night when the sporting gods showed both sides of their character.
Dayjur and Royal Academy are names that will be forever etched in the racing history books.
They only met once. At Haydock Park.
Richard Mann - Tante Rose too Cool in the Cup
I've only visited Haydock Park once, back in 2004 when I was convinced that Aidan O'Brien had the next Second Coming on his hands in the shape of One Cool Cat.
Looking back it was youthful naivety at best, pure idiocy at worst, but when making the trip across the M62 on that glorious Saturday morning, trade paper by my side, I was convinced the Haydock Sprint Cup was his for the taking. A few hours later I headed back home with a some harsh lessons learnt: don't always believe the hype and never underestimate a sprinter trained by Roger Charlton.
Tante Rose, sired by the mighty Barathea, had always looked a high-class filly in the making when under the care of Barry Hills but having made the switch to Charlton's Beckhampton base at the beginning of 2004, she went on to enjoy a brilliant unbeaten three race four-year-old career.
As well as Charlton working his magic, the drop to sprinting proved to be the making of Tante Rose and following a successful reappearance at Haydock and a Group Three cruise at York, she returned to Haydock to pass the biggest test of her career. But only just.
Despite travelling through the autumn feature with her usual aplomb, Tante Rose had to work furiously hard to get past reigning champion and Group One winner Somnus in the shadows of the post; Richard Hughes, as ever, proving the master of perfect timing.
This was a proper Group One sprint; the high-class Somnus carried out on his shield in second with the previous season's Prix de l'Abbaye hero Patavellian - also trained by Charlton - back in third.
For One Cool Cat, the dream was finally over. A high-profile defeat at the start of the year in the 2000 Guineas had suggested he would never be able to build on a brilliant juvenile campaign but victory over six furlongs at the Curragh followed by a luckless run in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York had offered renewed hope that he might still be able to reach the dizzy heights once predicted of him.
Haydock was supposed to be One Cool Cat's crowning moment; a chance to finally set the record straight and justify the huge faith O'Brien had placed in a colt whose services cost John Magnier 3.1 million dollars. As it was, his story would end in Newton-Le-Willows with a solid but unspectacular run back in sixth, an effort that rather summed up the second half of his career. A smart horse, but no star and certainly no champion.
Haydock itself was a treat; the fine weather allowing the beautiful paddock to look even more resplendent in the September sun and Newmarket's July Course apart, I'm not sure I've experienced anywhere better to watch horses have their final preparations made before they race. Of course, things may well have changed in the ensuing years but Haydock is a course I remain keen to visit again one day.
With the Sprint Cup done and dusted, and my wallet significantly lighter than it had been in the morning, my final memory of the day is of being able to dust myself down and somehow find the 14/1 winner of the two-year-old maiden. A debut scorer by the name of Zohar who was trained by Brian Meehan. The jockey: Mick Kinane.
Ah, those were the days.
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