User:alfiehanrahanDate:29/09/2006 Time:22:35:48Edition:30/09/2006 Examiner LiveXX-3009Page:26 Color:

26 Irish ExaminerSaturday 30.09.2006SPORT

XX1 - V1

BRAVE HEARTWHEN Pat Eddery

talks about horses,you listen.

The 11-time champion jockey has woneverything worth winning, and beenassociated with the sport’s elite through-out an awe-inspiring career.But for Dancing Brave, who took theworld of racing by storm in 1986, he hasa simple accolade.“He was the best,” says Eddery, withouthesitation. High praise from a man whopartnered Grundy, El Gran Senor andZafonic, en route to over 4,600 wins.“He had a lovely quality about him,really laid-back,” says Eddery. “Wellbalanced, with a great turn of foot offany pace.”Two decades have passed since DancingBrave’s defining run in the Prix de l’Arcde Triomphe. Eddery says it feels likeye s t e rday.James Delahooke, who had bought thehorse for Prince Khalid Abdullah,couldn’t get to Longchamp. Kept busywith the autumn sales, Delahooke wasstuck at his farm in Buckinghamshire,nervously watching the television.The race’s closing stages remain fresh inDelahooke’s mind. Entering the finalfurlong, Dancing Brave found himselflooking at the back of a wall made up ofnine of Europe’s best horses. For Eddery,it was now or never, and he took hishorse so far to the outside that hedisappeared from the television screen.“I remember it clearly,” Delahooke says.“Because he challenged wide, he wasout of shot, and the heart started to sink... ”Delahooke had first laid eyes on Danc-ing Brave two years earlier at Fasig-Tip-ton’s sales in Lexington, Kentucky.“He wasn’t a perfect specimen, but therewas something very athletic and im-posing about him,” he recalls. “His frontlegs were far from perfect, but I felt thathe could live with his deficiencies.Delahooke took Dancing Brave, andpaid $200,000 — in hindsight, the kindof bargain you dream about.“You have to remember, this was theCrazy 80s,” he says. “This was at a timewhen Sheikh Mohammed was paying$10 million for a single horse.”Money was no guarantee of success.Sheikh Mohammed al Makhtoum’s ri-valry with the Coolmore Group saw theformer pay a record $10.2 million in1983 for a yearling. Snaafi Dancer didnot become a household name. In fact,he never raced, and was infamouslysummed up by trainer John Dunlop as“quite a nice little horse, actually, butunfortunately no bloody good.”

D elahooke was cautiouslyoptimistic. “Wheneveryou make a purchase, you

have a dream for every one of thoseyearlings,” he says. “Maybe — hopefully— this one is going to be somethingreally special.”His feeling about Dancing Brave wasnot shared by Prince Khalid Abdullah’sprincipal trainer.“Jeremy Tree had first pick of what hewanted from the horses I had bought,”says Delahooke. “He missed DancingBrave. It was a big mistake.”Waiting in the wings was Guy Har-wood.“I got my first look at him as a yearling,when he came over to England beforethey were allocated out to the trainers,”Harwood now says. “This was one ofthe horses I wanted to train from whatMr Tree didn’t take.”Delahooke believes it was a stroke ofluck for horse and trainer alike, sayingHarwood’s patience allowed DancingBrave’s potential to develop.“He was very keen to train the horse,and he was a very good and patienttrainer,” he says. “Because of the de-ficiencies in his front legs, he had to be amature horse, to race on those limbs.Guy was professional enough to knowthis and to be patient enough to wait.”Harwood is less inclined to take all thec redi t .“He was a late-May foal, so he was quitebackward,” he says. “He was very muchwhat I’d call a bottom-yard horse at first.It was fortunate at the time we had60-odd yearlings in training, and there-fore the backward horses weren’t hardtrained in the early days.”It wasn’t long, though, before the train-er’s interest was piqued.“He first really caught my eye aroundthe middle of July, coming up thegallops one day. I said to the man whowas looking after the backward horses‘What’s that?’ He said ‘That’s DancingBrave’, and I said ‘You can drop him off

at the top yard on your way home’.Dancing Brave raced only twice as atwo-year-old, but the first of those twovictories, the Dorking Stakes atSandown Park, was enough to convinceHarwood’s stable jockey GrevilleStarkey that this was something special.Harwood remembers: “Greville got offhim and said ‘That’s my Derby ride’.”The association was to bring Starkey thelowest moment of his career.Dancing Brave opened 1986 with aone-miler, the Craven Stakes, at New-market. With Starkey again in the sad-dle, he blitzed the field. A convincingwin in the 2,000 Guineas followed, andan assault on the Epsom Derby seemedthe next logical step. But some had theirdoubts, as Eddery remembers.“There was a lot of press, because he wasa good Guineas winner, showing a lot ofspeed, about whether he would stay themile and a half,” he says. “It wasunknown territory. The furthest he’dbeen was a mile.”Starkey settled Dancing Brave into hisusual spot near the back of the field,preparing for the late burst that had beenso successful up to that point. Thatburst, however, came a fraction too late;all connected with Dancing Bravewatched in dismay as he finished atastonishing speed only to lose by a neckto the Aga Khan-owned Shahrastani.Starkey was pilloried for, as most saw it,leaving the best horse in the race withfar too much to do. Harwood believesill-fortune had as much to do with themishap as pilot error.“The seventh or the eighth furlong was

Shahrastani(Walter Swinburn(centre) leadsDancing Brave(left) down thehome straight inthe Epsom Derby.Shahrastani wonthe race.

run in 17 seconds, four seconds over theaverage for the Derby,” he says. “Thewhole field had concertina-ed up, andwhen it opened up, those at the backhad a job to get a run. I don’t thinkGreville rode the horse the wrong way.He perhaps gave him too much to do asthe race was run.”Twenty years on, Delahooke’s disap-pointment is still palpable.“It was the worst day of my life,” headmits. “I haven’t won a Derby. Guyhasn’t. And for everyone involved inhorse racing, the Derby is somethingyou really want.”Starkey and Dancing Brave bouncedback with a convincing win over astrong field in the Eclipse Stakes atSandown. But fate intervened, placingthe horse in the hands of Eddery for hisnext race, the King George VI andQueen Elizabeth II Diamond Stakes atAscot.“Greville had a fall,” says Eddery. “Hehurt his neck badly, and I was available.I was very excited. I knew he was a goodhorse when I saw him just get beaten inthe Derby. You knew that he wass pecial.”Dancing Brave again left the field fordead.Starkey recovered and rode to victory inthe Goodwood Stakes, Dancing Brave’strial for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.But any hopes of staying in the saddle forParis were in vain. The horse’s ownerdecreed that Eddery, whom he was toretain full-time from the following year,should take over.“By that time, Khalid Abdullah had

made up his mind that he was going toemploy Pat as his stable jockey, and so itwas automatic,” says Harwood.

S PIRITS were high as the partytravelled to Longchamp. Fac-ing Dancing Brave would be

the strongest field the race had ever seen.German Derby winner Acatenango,unbeaten in his previous 12 races, wasfancied, as were Triptych, Shardari,Darara and, once again, Shahrastani.The latter, seemingly out of sorts whenhe was vanquished in the King George,was back to his best.The biggest challenge, however, wasexpected to come from French “superhorse” Bering, who had won theFrench Derby in record time. JockeyGary Moore believed Bering wasunbeatable, as did most of France. ButDancing Brave was ready.“The horse was in super condition thatday,” says Harwood. “He was absolutelyat his best and I was really confident thathe would win.”Eddery was in similarly buoyant mood,with only one worry as he again plannedto strike from the back of the field.“I couldn’t wait for it,” he says. “Myonly doubt was getting there too soon,because I’d ridden him in the KingGeorge and when he got to the front, heused to pull up and take things easy, somy intentions were to be the last one tochallenge.”With Dancing Brave cruising along nearthe back, Eddery waited for hismoment, watching his main rival.“I always had Bering in my sights,” hesays. “He was always only just in front ofme the whole way around.”With a furlong and a half to go, Shardarimoved up. Bering responded and sud-denly the field was spread out across thetrack. The continent’s best were set for awinner-take-all dash to the post.Harwood felt a pang of doubt as thespectre of Epsom reared its head. Danc-ing Brave was behind the pack.“It’s one you’ll never forget,” he says.“There was a moment where I wassaying ‘What the hell’s going on?’”Eddery responded by taking DancingBrave right to the outside. A roar ofacclaim for Bering died in the throats ofthe French crowd as Eddery’s mountwent thundering past 100 yards from thefinish to be crowned the indisputableKing of Europe.

A t Adstock Manor Stud,James Delahooke was ec-static. “I burst into tears,”

he says. “It was a wonderful moment.The horse deserved it, Guy deserved it,after the Derby, it set the seal on his year,and proved to everybody that he reallywas a good horse.”In the euphoria that followed, it wasdecided that Dancing Brave wouldmake an assault on the Breeders’ CupTurf in California. It was, as Harwoodconcedes, one too many.“After the Arc, the horse didn’t recoveras quickly as we would have liked,” hesays. “I could never quite get him backto the weight I wanted him to be whenwe got to the Breeders’ Cup, and he wasalways just a bit dehydrated.”Eddery quickly felt all was not well.“I knew as soon as he jumped off in therace,” he says. “He was very flat. He wasunfortunate that he had to travel all thatway in the heat. The climate here wascold at the time. The quarantined horsesweren’t let out until 9 o’clock. By thattime it was boiling hot.”An exhausted Dancing Brave trailedhome in fourth as Manila won, a resultthat still grates with Delahooke.Dancing Brave was retired to stud afterthe Breeders’ Cup. After battling aserious illness, he went on to producemany winners, 1993 proving a bumperseason. White Muzzle won the ItalianDerby and Wemyss Bight took the IrishOaks. And on a June day at Epsom,Commander in Chief swept homethree-and-a-half lengths clear to erasememories of his father’s defeat.Harwood never got that coveted Derbywin — in 1996, his daughter AmandaPerrett took over the training licence atCoombelands — but he remembersDancing Brave with great fondness.“He could have won at six furlongs inGroup One, he did win Group Ones ata mile, he won Group Ones at amile-and-a-quarter and amile-and-a-half, and that’s the real test,”he say. Your Nijinskys, your Mill Reefs,your Sir Ivors, he was easily on a par.“He was the best I ever trained, withouta shadow of a doubt.”

‘Because hechallenged wide,he was out ofshot, and theheart startedto sink...’

‘It set the seal onhis year, andproved toeverybody thathe really was agood horse’.

Dancing Brave’s triumph in the 1986 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is widelyregarded as the race’s finest performance. Eoghan Sweeney looks back20 years at the crowning moment of a remarkable horse.

Tabor expectsspecial Run

by Nick Robson

LAST YEAR’S winner HurricaneRun will be bidding to join an ex-clusive roll of honour atLongchamp tomorrow, as just sixhorses have done the Prix de l’Arcde Triomphe double – five of themin successive years – with the lastbeing the Vincent O’Brien-trainedAlleged under Lester Piggott in1978.

Although owner Michael Taborhopes he will prove up to the task,he knows a tough challenge awaitshis four-year-old.

“I’d be very hopeful because Ithink he is a very special horse andknowing Andre (Fabre) and thetrainer he is, he will have him pre-pared on the day,” said Tabor.

“But of course he has Shirocco aswell – obviously, being one of theowners of Hurricane Run, I’d liketo think he’ll beat Shirocco, but anindependent observer might thinkdifferently, so it will be close.”

Ladbrokes St Leger hero SixtiesIcon will fly the flag for Britain .

Jeremy Noseda’s charge was animpressive winner of theone-mile-six-furlong Classic tomake it three wins from six careeroutings.

Sixties Icon will be stepping backin trip, but owner Paul Roy, whosupplemented his charge at a cost of€60,000, thinks he has come onagain for his York victory. “He’simproved again since the Leger, buthe will have to as he’s in against thethree best horses in the world.”

A field of eight will go to post,with Shirocco and Hurriccane Rundominating the market along withJapanese superstar Deep Impact.

It will be the smallest Arc fieldsince 1941 – and plenty of ques-tions have been posed as to wherethe pace will come from.

“Shirocco has made it in the past,he took it over a long way out inthe Coronation Cup and I wouldn’tbe surprised if he might be infront,” said big-race rider FrankieDettor i.

Deep Impact has attracted muchof the attention in the pre-racebuild-up and he carries the hopesof a nation as he bids to go one bet-ter than El Condor Pasa in 1999.

“Since arriving here he’s beentraining for almost two hours ev-eryday on the sand course, which isdeeper than that of Japan,” trainerYasuo Ikee said.

“We are ready for the race.”Although it is a small field for the

race, connections of Shirocco feelrider Christophe Soumillon mayjust give them a vital edge.

The Belgian-born rider has di-vided opinion in Britain, Soumillonis regarded as peerless in France –particularly at Longchamp.

“Christophe has become such animportant part of this horse’s life weare very happy that he is free to rideShirocco,” said Paul Harley, racingmanager to owner Baron Georgvon Ullman.

“He knows the horse extremelywell and will now what to expecton the day.”

Dancing Brave(Pat Eddery, 12),charges awayfrom Bering (14)to win the 1986Prix de l’Arc deTriomphe atLongchamp.

Indian Ink scalps rivals with thrilling Cheveley Park successby Martin Kelly

RICHARD HANNON celebratedhis first Sky Bet Cheveley Park successas Indian Ink followed up her recentwin in the Watership Down Stud Salesrace with a thrilling victory at thehighest level.

While glory in the Group One con-test was a first for Hannon, his fillysucceeded by just a neck in denyingBrian Meehan his third consecutivewin in the race as his Dhanyata was ag-onisingly outbattled and had to settlefor second.

The race was stripped of its biggestname when Stan James 1000 Guineasfavourite Sander Camillo was ruled outdue to the softening ground, but herabsence failed to detract from a pulsat-ing renewal.

Scarlet Runner and La Presse duelledup front for most of the six-furlongrace, with Richard Hughes content tosit in just behind on the 3-1joint-favour ite.

He then sent Indian Ink about herbusiness two furlongs out, althoughher every stride was matched by JimmyFortune on Dhanyata.

The latter struck her nose in frontinside the distance, but Indian Ink rev-elled in the ground and stayed on bestof all to take the £96,526 first prize,adding to the £136,570 she picked upat Ascot seven days ago.

Meehan, who has struck in the pasttwo runnings with Magical Romanceand Donna Blini, came close to com-pleting a clean sweep with Dhanyata,and she was followed home by SilcaChiave under Ted Durcan.

French raider Magic America wasthe other joint market leader but thePrix Morny second was always in rearand finished sixth, failing to add to histrainer Criquette Head-Maarek’s threeprevious wins in the race.

Indian Ink had been at home in test-ing conditions at Ascot, and Hannonsaid: “I was delighted to see the rain.

“She got into trouble going into theDip but when she hit the risingground she ran on again – I did thinkwe were in bother for a second.

“We went for the money in the Wa-tership Down race but she won thateasily and we decided if she came outof that race well she would come hereif they got the rain – which they did,and here we are.

“That’s it for her this year. She’s hadfive quick races.”

Peter Chapple-Hyam enjoyed hisfirst domestic Group One victory sincereturning from Hong Kong in thespring of 2004 when Dutch Art pow-ered to success in the Shadwell MiddlePark Stakes.

Dettori’s mount bounced out of thestalls and pulled hard through the earlystages as he jostled for the lead withBrave Tin Soldier and Captain Mar-velo u s .

But once the Italian asked the Pauland Susan Roy-owned Dutch Art toquicken the response was immediateand the juvenile powered clear with anelectric turn of foot to score by an easytwo lengths.

Wi Dud came from off the pace totake second, with the outsider of thefield Captain Marvelous (33-1) alength and a quarter back in third.

Indian Ink, (Richard Hughes, left), beats Dhanyata to win the Sky Bet CheveleyPark Stakes at Newmarket. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA.

Picture: Gerry andMark Cranham Library.

Picture: SimonBruty/Allsport