Launched in 2021, the Qipco British Champions Series Hall Of Fame aims to remember the greatest human and equine flat racing stars. Aidan O’Brien has already earned a place alongside fellow training greats Sir Michael Stoute and Sir Henry Cecil, with Willie Carson, Steve Cauthen, and Frankie Dettori among the honoured riders.
Each year sees a new raft of entries added to the Hall Of Fame, and this week, Qipco released a shortlist of four horses nominated to join the illustrious company of Pebbles, Brigadier Gerard, Mill Reef, Frankel, Sea The Stars, Galileo, Dancing Brave, Dayjur, Nijinsky, and Stradivarius.
Here, we look back at the careers of these four chosen horses, any of whom would be worthy inductees.
Daylami
- Sire – Doyoun
- Trainer – Saeed bin Suroor
- Peak Official Rating – 135
- Group 1 Wins – Poule d’Essai de Poulains (1997), Coral-Eclipse Stakes (1998), Man O’War (1998), Coronation Cup (1999), King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (1999), Irish Champion Stakes (1999), Breeders’ Cup Turf (1999)
Everyone loves a grey, particularly one as talented as this son of the 1988 2000 Guineas winner Doyoun. A Listed winner at two, Daylami recorded the first of seven top-level successes in the French 2000 Guineas. Impressive as that Longchamp success was, this colt was barely getting started.
Admirably kept in training by Godolphin, Daylami was even better at four, winning three of six starts, including when seeing off Faithful Son and Central Park for a Saeed bin Suroor 1-2-3 in the Coral-Eclipse.
Daylami then cemented his status in racing folklore with a spectacular five-year-old campaign. For most five-year-olds, maintaining their four-year-old levels would be deemed a success. Not Daylami, who bagged four Group 1s, improved his rating by a whopping 12lbs and was duly crowned the European Racehorse of the Year and US Turf Horse of the Year.
Dubai Millennium
- Sire – Seeking The Gold
- Trainer – Saeed bin Suroor
- Peak Official Rating – 136
- Group 1 Wins – Jacques Le Marois (1999), Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (1999), Dubai World Cup (2000), Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (2000)
Many stars have carried Godolphin’s famous royal blue silks over the years. However, this son of Seeking The Gold is widely accepted as the greatest of them all.
Kicking things off with a five-length romp at Yarmouth, Dubai Millennium landed nine of 10 career starts – the only blip coming when failing to handle Epsom’s twists and undulations in the 1999 Derby. Barring that Epsom effort, the giant bay was in a different league, with no horse getting to within 2½l of him in his four Group 1 wins.
Choosing highlights is no easy task, but for us, he saved the best until last – backing up a 6l annihilation of the field in the Dubai World Cup with a monstrous performance in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Following a career-ending injury, Dubai Millennium was retired to stud as a four-year-old. Tragically, he passed away due to grass sickness just one year later, having sired only one crop of foals – an output much too small for one so talented, but his legacy lives on through his super-sire son Dubawi.
Giant’s Causeway
- Sire – Storm Cat
- Trainer – Aidan O’Brien
- Peak Official Rating – 126
- Group 1 Wins – Prix de la Salamandre (1999), St. James’s Palace Stakes (2000), Coral-Eclipse Stakes (2000), Sussex Stakes (2000), Juddmonte International Stakes (2000), Irish Champion Stakes (2000)
If judged by guts alone, it would be hard to go against this Ballydoyle star from the turn of the century. Nicknamed “The Iron Horse”, Giant’s Causeway may not have possessed the raw ability of a Daylami or Dubai Millennium, but he made up for that with his sheer will to win.
In 13 career starts, he never finished outside the top 2, and, whilst a Classic may have been absent from his CV, he won just about every other major 1m to 1m2f event during a golden 2000. Successful six times at the highest level, only one of those victories came by more than ¾l, with his victory in the Juddmonte International perfectly illustrating his never say die attitude.
Often as memorable in defeat as in victory, Giant’s Causeway rounded off his career when going down by just a neck to Tiznow in the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Classic (Aidan O’Brien has never come closer to claiming the US showpiece). Now a successful stallion, the pick of his progeny is the brilliant Mark Johnston runner, Shamardal.
Montjeu
- Sire – Sadler’s Wells
- Trainer – John Hammond
- Peak Official Rating – 135
- Group 1 Wins – Prix du Jockey Club (1999), Irish Derby (1999), Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (1999), Tattersall’s Gold Cup (2000), Grand Prix de Saing-Cloud (2000), King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (2000)
Last but no means least, one of the greatest horses to ever carry the famous Michael Tabor silks. That is quite the accolade, but fully deserved by this John Hammond-trained son of Sadler’s Wells.
Defeated five times during his career and at times a little quirky, Montjeu wasn’t as consistent as Dubai Millennium or as tough as Giant’s Causeway. However, where Dubai Millennium muscled all rivals into submission, here we had a horse who exemplified class.
His famous win from a seemingly impossible position in the 1999 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe will be the race for which he is most remembered, but the 2000 King George is equally hard to forget. Lining up in a field including Fantastic Light, Daliapour, and Japanese superstar Air Shakur, the mount of Mick Kinane appeared to be out for a leisurely jog as he sauntered to victory without breaking a sweat.
The Public Decides
A mighty cast of four racing titans and no easy task for the public, who must pick a winner. Head to the Hall of Fame website to cast your vote.
