Dancing Brave

Following an interview with Guy Harwood to mark the 40th anniversary of Dancing Brave's Classic season, we examine the horse's stud career in Britain and Japan  By Emma Berry "Neither of us thought we'd ever get another horse like him," says Grant Pritchard-Gordon, former racing manager to Prince Khalid Abdullah in the early days of Juddmonte and, crucially, through the 1986 tour de force of Dancing Brave.  "Then I remember when Frankel won his Guineas, I was in the box with Prince Khalid and I said to him, 'I never...

Year in, year out we can appreciate the best horses of each generation but how often are we granted the privilege to witness one whose talent is so immense that his name will echo down the decades?  Those who made their way to Newmarket's traditional opening meeting 40 years ago likely came away with a favourable impression of Dancing Brave's win in the Craven Stakes but they could hardly have dared to dream of what was to come. For Guy Harwood, however, that dream was already alive, even on that...

Since 1955, Japanese breeders have received unwavering support from the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders' Association (JBBA). To outside eyes, the evolution of Japanese racing as a global force tends to go hand-in-hand with the Yoshida family's cultivation of Sunday Silence and latterly his son Deep Impact under their Shadai umbrella. Yet that would be doing a disservice to the number of other operations who have put in the effort and investment over the decades to improve the breed. Chief among them is the JBBA, whose primary stallion base is situated in...

Newmarket's Craven meeting could just as well be called Anticipation Week. Anticipation is climbing the steps of a venerated football stadium for a night game to find the floodlights blazing and the grass slick and lush. It's the bounce of the England cricket team down the pavilion steps to start an Ashes series. It's checking your tickets the day before Wimbledon tennis starts or standing just after dawn beside the first tee at an Open Championship or Masters. It's not about what you know. It's about all the things you...

Charismatic international jockey Frankie Dettori and 1980s legend Dancing Brave (Lyphard) are the two newest members of the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame. Launched in 2021, the Hall of Fame is specifically for UK Flat racing, and both inductees will be honoured through a special presentation moment ahead of the G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse on Saturday, Apr. 30. Dettori, 51, is the third jockey to be inducted after Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery. He has ridden almost 3,300 British winners, third to Piggott and Willie...

The late Pat Eddery has been inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame. Eddery, who died in 2015, was named champion jockey on 11 occasions from 1974-1996 and booted home more than 6,000 winners. A total of 4,632 were in Great Britain, a figure exceeded only by the legendary Sir Gordon Richards, who had 4,870. Eddery won 14 British Classics, including three Derbys with Grundy (GB) (Great Nephew {GB}), Golden Fleece (Nijinsky II) and Quest For Fame (GB) (Rainbow Quest). It was aboard Grundy that Eddery rode...

His Highness Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, one of the most successful owner/breeders in the history of the sport through his Juddmonte Farms dynasty, died on Jan. 12 in his 84th year. Prince Khalid's famous green, pink and white silks have been immortalized in the annals of the sport, having been carried transatlantically by 118 Grade/Group 1 winners headed by champions like Frankel (GB), Dancing Brave (GB), Enable (GB) and Arrogate among many others. He campaigned over 500 stakes winners, of which he bred over 440. Douglas Erskine Crum, chief executive...

Nothing sacred just appears out of the wilderness; it is always the outcome of an evolutionary process with many layers of development. In racing, France and arguably Europe's self-proclaimed 'monument', the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, emerged from a lengthy spell of planning and forethought into how the country could showcase its own talent in direct competition with its neighbours. With the hippodrome at Longchamp superseding the worn-out Champ de Mars circuit in 1857, the Societe d'Encouragement pour l'Amelioration des Races de Chevaux en France looked to provide some prizes...

   In Part II of a two-part series, John Berry looks at Juddmonte's lasting influences from the late 80s through to the present on the 40th anniversary weekend of Prince Khalid Abdullah's first Classic win with Known Fact in the 2000 Guineas. Click here for Part I. When the mighty Dancing Brave (Lyphard) retired to stud, his brilliant 1986 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe triumph shining like a beacon in the collective consciousness, it was generally felt that Prince Khalid Abdullah had probably reached the pinnacle of his ownership...

In Part I of a two-part series on the 40th anniversary weekend of Known Fact's 2000 Guineas win, John Berry takes us through the first decade of Prince Khalid Abdullah's racing and breeding dynasty. Under normal circumstances, the European Classic year would be springing into life this weekend with Newmarket staging the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 1000 Guineas. Forty years ago the Guineas meeting looked a particularly special one, the main trials having set the stage perfectly. Subsequent Irish Derby hero Tyrnavos (GB) (Blakeney {GB}) had beaten Chesham S....