Ahead of this year's Ladbrokes King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, our team pick out their favourite renewals of the Kempton feature.
Ed Chamberlin - Desert Orchid (take your pick from 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990)
It has to be Dessie and his domination of this race in the late 1980s. He was a horse who caught the general public's imagination and took racing onto the back - and often - front pages of the newspapers.
He was deadly around here too, a brilliant jumper and a breathtaking sight out in front. I remember huddling around a television at Wincanton to watch him stride clear under Richard Dunwoody to spark wild scenes of celebration in Sunbury and the West Country.
A very special horse in a very special race.
Mark Howard - Kauto Star 2006
My favourite King George memory is Kauto Star's first win in 2006. Providing Paul Nicholls with his third win in the Christmas showpiece, a star was born as he destroyed the likes of Exotic Dancer and Monet’s Garden, despite blundering at the last.
Only six at the time, his eight lengths win came on the back of victories in the Old Roan, Betfair and Tingle Creek Chases, all in the space of a little over two months.
Oli Bell - Algan 1994
This doesn’t stand out for the winner – it was the last-fence departure of Barton Bank that made the race memorable. He was my favourite horse at the time and the first one I really developed a major fondness for. My mum put a couple of pounds on him at Kempton, my first bet, and when he bounded clear between from the third last the celebrations began.
Then came the late drama, a shuddering blunder and Adrian Maguire exiting stage left. It was a race that had everything and sums up exactly why I love the sport. It’s frustrating and heartbreaking at times, but thrilling and exhilarating at others. It’s why we keep coming back for more.
David Ord - Wayward Lad (1985)
It could – and arguably should – have been Kauto Star’s remarkable fifth win in 2011. The best chaser I’ve seen climbed off the canvas to win the Betfair Chase at Haydock the previous month and completed the fairytale comeback with a demolition of Long Run and co in the winter Sunbury sunshine But I can’t desert Wayward Lad in 1985. I was fortunate enough to be raised by a racing-mad dad in Yorkshire during the Michael Dickinson golden years and this fellow was the family favourite. It was his fencing, as slick as you’ll ever see, strong travelling nature and on a good day sheer brilliance.
He’d already won the Boxing Day showpiece twice before but was a relatively unfancied 12/1 chance in the year Shakin’ Stevens topped the festive charts with Merry Christmas Everyone. He certainly hadn’t been wrapped up in cotton wool that winter, winning the Charlie Hall Chase on his reappearance at Wetherby on November 2. Between then and Kempton he ran no fewer than three times, unseating rider in the Edward Hanmer at Haydock, finishing third to Burrough Hill Lad in the Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow and then chasing home Earls Brig in the Tommy Whittle. The general feeling was his powers were on the wain, but as he jumped to the front three out under a strong Graham Bradley drive, the dream was alive.
Burrough Hill Lad and Earls Brig were spent forces, Half Free’s petrol tank already empty, but Combs Ditch loomed large. It all came down to the final fence and Wayward Lad was away the quicker, taking a length out of his rival. Try as he might Colin Brown couldn’t reel him in on the runner-up.
In his next start the Dickinson star was to play his part in one the most famous Cheltenham Gold Cups of all time, leading Dawn Run up the hill only to be cut down in the final strides to spark wild celebrations as the mare made history. Wayward Lad sadly went down in history as one of the best horses never to win a Gold Cup. He was also one of the best to win a King George.
Donn McClean - Kicking King (2004)
Kicking King in 2004 wasn’t the household name that Kicking King subsequently became. He was only a youngster then, a six-year-old and, runner-up in the 2004 Arkle, we didn’t know then that he could stay three miles at the highest level.
Barry Geraghty had no doubt though. He sent him on a long way out, test Azertyuiop’s stamina and, by the time they straightened up for home, his only three (visible) dangers were in front of him. One of them nearly caught him too. There was that last fence drama, when Kicking King did remarkably well to find a leg and Barry Geraghty defied gravity. And then there was the drama of the wayward Santa on the run-in, Kingscliff closing him down and Santa diving for the rail.
There were lots of elements bundled into that victory. As well as the drama of it all, there was also the announcement of a new staying chasing star, who would go on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and another King George. And there was the King George connection, a first King George for Barry Geraghty, and a first for trainer Tom Taaffe, son of the legendary Pat Taaffe, who had ridden Arkle to win the race in 1965 and who had trained Captain Christy to win it in 1974 and 1975.
Ben Linfoot – Desert Orchid (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990)
If there’s one horse that got me into racing it was Desert Orchid. As a young lad Christmas was made all the more special by this swashbuckling grey who seemed to win the King George VI Chase every year. To young eyes he was like an equine superhero, flashing over the fences like a rocket. I can’t remember his individual triumphs but it was probably his third and fourth King George victories that resonated most, as I gradually grew out of Optimus Prime and the rest of the Transformers. As my love for racing developed in my teenage years my prize possession was The Grey Horse: The true story of Desert Orchid by owner Richard Burridge, still one of my very favourite tomes.
Rags to riches, versatility, flamboyance, his left-handed struggles – Dessie’s story had everything – and he had a majestic look about him and a great name to boot. His remarkable record in the King George may have been usurped by that horse from another planet, Kauto Star, but Desert Orchid will always be the King of Kempton for me.
Matt Brocklebank - Kicking King (2005)
Falling for National Hunt racing in my late teens and early 20s featured some moments I’ll never forget and the 2005 King George encapsulated the whole love affair. Boxing Day has always been about family and sport and the memory of Monkerhostin’s narrow defeat to Kicking King was ecstasy and agony all rolled into one.
Philip Hobbs’ horse – who beat subsequent King George legend Kauto Star in the Haldon Gold Cup - was always a firm favourite in the Brocklebank household as he showed so much heart and gave my dad and I some brilliant days with 25/1 and 20/1 wins in big Sandown handicaps in his later years.
He ran a massive race at his favourite track that Boxing Day, the race having been rescheduled from Kempton, and was beaten just a head by Tom Taaffe’s dual King George hero.
The winner was on another level in truth, but good horses need proper competition to really shine on the big stage and Monkerhostin put up a brilliant, albeit valiant, fight on a day that will hopefully live with me for a few more years yet.