BEST THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES

Graham Buddry looks back at the career of Alcide, who made up for in talent what she lacked in stature

- Graham Buddry

Some horses, however good they were, have always seemed to fly under the radar into obscurity. This months' selection flies so low he would probably not even be found with sonar yet he was a champion in every sense of the word and also one of the last great cases of nobbling for the benefit of the bookies.

Foaled in 1955, Alcide, a dark bay with black points, was a very small individual by the 1949 Ascot Gold Cup winner, Alycidon. This home bred of Sir Humphrey de Trafford was eventually sent to the very capable Freemason Lodge stable of Cecil Boyd-Rochfort in Newmarket where he would spend his entire career.

That career didn't start too propitiously as Alcide was surly and exceptionally slow on the gallops, preferring to buck and rear up than do as required and, as such, not much was expected of the two year old even after he had been given time to grow and mature.

His racecourse debut in September of 1957 was far from satisfactory yet Boyd-Rochfort had seen something in his charge that he liked. Accordingly Alcide was given a second and final run as a juvenile in the Group 3 seven furlong Horris Hill Stakes in October. With a late burst of speed that took him from last to first in the final furlong Alcide proved he had speed as well as stamina for what many had considered an unlikely victory.

As a three year old in 1958 Alcide set about taking the racing world by storm. Deliberately bypassing the Two Thousand Guineas which was won by his stablemate, Pall Mall, in the colours of Queen Elizabeth II, Alcide began his season at Sandown Park. The Royal Stakes over ten furlongs appeared in the bag when Alcide stormed to the front close home but a supremely power-packed finish from Lester Piggott made use of the seven pound advantage his mount, Snow Cat, had to scrape home by a short head just as the protagonists flew past the post.