We’re excited to announce that the Hall of Fame is set to induct a new ‘Turn of the Century’ equine hero, into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame. All four candidates chosen were champions who lit up the turf over two decades ago, and your chosen winner will be racing into the Hall of Fame, to stand proudly next to the likes of Frankel, Stradivarius and Nijinsky.
The Hall of Fame’s expect judging panel have short listed the following:
Daylami
The globetrotting grey ran with distinction all over the world, and his exploits in his final season in 1999, as a five-year-old earned him the accolade of Cartier’s European Horse of the Year and North American Male Turf Champion.
Daylami began that campaign with a luckless run in the Dubai World Cup, but he would subsequently win the Coronation Cup, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes (by five lengths), Irish Champion Stakes (by nine lengths) and the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
He had won the Coral-Eclipse the previous season, while his successes as a three-year-old had included victory in the French 2000 Guineas. That Classic victory came for trainer Alain De Royer-Dupre in the silks of the Aga Khan, before he was a big-money purchase by Godolphin and switched to trainer Saeed bin Suroor.
Daylami won 11 of his 21 races and had an official rating of 135. He was retired to stud at the close of 1999, going on to sire the winners of more than 400 races.
Dubai Millennium
One of the best horses, if not the best, owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation.
His only defeat in 10 races came when not staying the Derby trip in 1999. He was flawless in his other races, winning them by an aggregate of more than 47 lengths.
The highlights came in his final two races, as a four-year-old, when he followed a memorable six-length romp in the Dubai World Cup with a tremendous eight-length success in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. His official rating zoomed to 136. The previous year, after his Derby defeat, he had dropped back to a mile and scooped the Prix Jacques le Marois and then the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. He won the latter by six lengths.
Injury in the year 2000 curtailed his career and he was retired to stud, the apple of his owner’s eye. Tragically, despite intensive veterinary treatment, he died the following year after contracting grass sickness. The small pool of horses he sired included Dubawi, who remains an outstanding stallion.
Giant’s Causeway
He was one of the first superstar performers trained by Aidan O’Brien and was dubbed “The Iron Horse” because of his remarkable constitution. Rarely has a top horse in the modern era been asked so many searching questions and answered positively every time.
Unbeaten in three starts as a two-year-old in 1999, he won on his return at The Curragh in early April before contesting nine successive Group One/Grade One races over the next seven months.
He was runner-up in the English and Irish versions of the 2000 Guineas before reeling off successive wins in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Coral-Eclipse, Sussex Stakes, Juddmonte International and Irish Champion Stakes. He went off at 8/1 for the Eclipse, reflecting the quality of the opposition.
If that were not enough, he was also second in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes before being beaten a neck by Tiznow in an epic Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Giant’s Causeway was retired to stud in 2001, moving to Coolmore’s US branch in Kentucky and becoming one of the most influential sires in North America.
Montjeu
The six-time Group One winner illuminated the sport with a string of exhilarating performances brimming with equine swagger. He demonstrated a few quirks along the way, with John Hammond, his trainer, describing him as an “eccentric genius”.
Montjeu stamped himself as something out of the ordinary with wide-margin wins in the French Derby and Irish Derby in 1999, before signing off for the season with victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at the main expense of Japan’s big hope, El Condor Pasa.
The son of Sadler’s Wells, owned by Michael Tabor together with Laure Boulay de la Meurthe, would return in 2000 to land the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. He had an official rating of 135 at his peak, and was chosen as Cartier’s Three-Year-Old European Champion Colt and World Champion. The way he cruised clear of Fantastic Light and Daliapour at Ascot remains a cherished memory for many.
His progeny included four Derby winners, plus numerous other top-class performers.
If you’re heading to the Museum throughout August, be sure to cast your vote either via the interactive screen found in the atrium, or via the ballot box. Fans will be able to cast their votes from Monday 5th August 2024.
Equally you can register your vote online here: VOTE NOW
Fans have until 11.59pm on Monday 26th August to decide which equine star will be the next to join the likes of Frankel and Stradivarius in the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall of Fame.
The winning horse’s connection will receive a specially commissioned medal to mark the new induction, and will be presented to the connections on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot, later this year on 19th October 2024.
Launched in April 2021, the QIPCO British Champions Hall of Fame is hosted in the Thompson Gallery at the National Horseracing Museum. This amazing exhibition displays a variety of special mementoes belonging to our Hall of Famers and their connections, and celebrates the modern greats of British Flat Racing from 1970 onwards.
