ZILZAL TRULY WAS AN EQUINE EARTHQUAKE

Graham Buddry remembers the 1989 Horse of the Year

- Graham Buddry

Four strange facts were turned on their heads when Zilzal galloped his way to being the champion miler and Horse of the Year in 1989.

He didn’t race as a two-year-old and it’s exceptionally rare for a horse to achieve such heights without at least one run as a juvenile. He never contested, let alone won, a Classic and indeed never even held any entries yet still rose to being top of the class. Third, he started his racing career in a lowly £3,000 event at Leicester and while some highly regarded types do start out at such modest places, generally as two-year-olds, it is almost unheard of for such exalted progress in just a single season.

Finally, unlike their counterparts in National Hunt who are around for many years and endear themselves by their longevity, Flat racers normally have just two, or sometimes three, years to grace the turf. To be held in such high esteem in a matter of just a few months is highly unusual yet his sire himself was regarded as a world beater after just two victories during a mere three-race career.

Zilzal had the great Northern Dancer bloodline through his sire, Nureyev, who, after a single race at two and another at three was already held in whispered awe. Nureyev’s third race was the Two Thousand Guineas, which he eventually won after his hapless French jockey got hopelessly boxed in. To extricate himself they barged through a miniscule gap and although clearly the best horse won he was disqualified for the interference caused. A severe virus prior to the Derby cut his racing career to just those three races before a new career at stud, yet he is still rightly considered as one of the greats of the turf.