In the run-up to Cheltenham, we've asked journalists from Timeform and Sporting Life to argue the case for the greatest Cheltenham horse of all time. The numbers make this an open-and-shut case – and we'll be talking about Arkle as the series concludes. But greatness, like beauty, is somewhat in the eye of the beholder. So which horses moved our writers most and why? Which performances from some of these Festival greats stand out? And how many of them can legitimately challenge Arkle in the GOAT conversation?
Why is Dawn Run the greatest Cheltenham horse of all time?
There aren't many achievements in racing that stand the test of time and remain truly unique, but Dawn Run is still the only horse to have won both the Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup. If winning the two recognised championship events over hurdles and fences and being versatile enough to have the speed for a Champion Hurdle and the stamina for a Gold Cup isn't the mark of a G.O.A.T., then what is? Her feat is all the more impressive given that she was a mare, a minority group in the jumping population. At the time, she was only the second mare to win the Champion Hurdle, and, forty years on, she remains the most recent of four mares ever to win the Gold Cup. And then there's her lack of experience as a chaser. Technically, she wasn’t a novice as she’d won over fences the season before her Gold Cup victory, but she had run in only four chases beforehand and unseated in one of those before being remounted to complete. Like Arkle, Dawn Run's Cheltenham heroics are recognised at the track both in statue form and in having a race named in her honour at the Festival, but this fairytale didn’t have a happy ending – she suffered a fatal fall at Auteuil months after her Gold Cup win when bidding to retain her French Champion Hurdle title.
What an amazing feat and such a sad end. What could she have achieved had she lived past the age of eight?
Who knows, she might well have won another Gold Cup at the very least - the following year's race won by The Thinker in the snow certainly wasn’t one of the best-quality renewals. But Dawn Run’s untimely death was a double tragedy as it also robbed her of a broodmare career. I like to think she still left a legacy though. Her achievements for trainer Paddy Mullins doubtless left a big impression on his son Willie, and it's surely not a coincidence that mares such as Annie Power, Quevega and now Lossiemouth have contributed much to his own success as a trainer.
Did the form of what she did achieve on the track stack up though? She looks a long way off the best of the best Cheltenham winners on Timeform ratings?
Well, John Randall and Tony Morris put it far more bluntly than that in their book A Century of Champions, describing Dawn Run’s reputation as ‘bogus’ and ranking her among the ‘inferior’ Gold Cup winners of the last century. Ouch! They make the point that Dawn Run wouldn’t have won either the Champion Hurdle or the Gold Cup without the sex allowance (5 lb in those days compared with 7 lb now) that had just been introduced for mares, but it’s hard to agree with the pair’s verdict that she was ‘doubly lucky’ to win both races. The historic nature of her achievement strongly suggests there was more to it than mere luck. After all, if you want to talk ratings, Dawn Run accomplished another rare feat – she achieved top-class figures on the Timeform scale over hurdles (173) and fences (167). That makes her Timeform’s highest-rated mare over jumps – the nanny G.O.A.T. if you like.
How good was her Gold Cup win?
The thousands who witnessed racing history and then erupted into bedlam at Cheltenham when Dawn Run crossed the line in the Gold Cup clearly didn’t feel there was anything ‘inferior’ about what they’d just seen. Okay, the ante-post favourite and former winner Burrough Hill Lad was absent through injury – by the way, despite Burrough Hill Lad being the highest-rated jumper that season, Timeform awarded Dawn Run the ‘Champion Jumper’ title. But Dawn Run’s ten Gold Cup rivals included the first two in that season’s King George – Wayward Lad and Combs Ditch – as well as the first two from the previous season’s Gold Cup, Forgive N’ Forget and Righthand Man. With the ground on the firm side, Dawn Run ended up breaking the course record by nearly two seconds. She set a searching gallop but there was nothing uncontested about her lead as she had the Welsh Grand National winner Run And Skip for company most of the way. But as he dropped away, Dawn Run found herself with two new challengers in the straight. Both Wayward Lad and Forgive N’ Forget headed her after the final fence where she looked beaten, but as her rivals faltered up the hill, Dawn Run found extra – ‘the mare’s beginning to get up!’ in the immortal words of Peter O’Sullevan – rallying under Jonjo O’Neill’s urgings to win by a length.
You look too young, John, but what was your favourite Dawn Run memory...?
It would have been a rush home from school that day to put the telly on, but you can probably tell I’ve answered this question already. The scenes immediately after the Gold Cup were just as memorable, though. Let’s just say security, and health and safety, wasn’t as tight in those days! It seemed like half of Ireland wanted to accompany Jonjo and Dawn Run into the winner’s enclosure as they fought their way through the crowds wanting to either shake Jonjo’s hand or give Dawn Run a pat. Her jockeys were very much a sub-plot in the Dawn Run story, and when Jonjo came out of the weighing room later on for the trophy presentation, he was carrying Tony Mullins on his shoulders to share in the celebrations. Not for the first time in Dawn Run’s career, her owner Mrs Charmian Hill had decided that for the Gold Cup ride the more experienced O’Neill should replace the young stable jockey. At least Mullins got to partner Dawn Run in her final win, a specially arranged match at Punchestown with the Champion Chase winner Buck House – over ‘his' trip of two miles and at level weights. More evidence of the mare’s remarkable versatility.
More in the Cheltenham Festival GOAT series
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