Desert Orchid

One of the greatest race horses to have ever lived.

Desert Orchid was born on 11th April 1979, bred by Jimmy Burridge, Desert Orchid was an unremarkable horse in his early career falling at the 1st fence in only his first race, he never managed a 1st place all year and remained a maiden.

He was trained at the David Elsworth stables, a grey gelding. In his second season he hosed home in his first race start, beating the favourite (Lucky Rascal) at Ascot by 20 lengths.
He ran 8 races in the season 1983/1984, winning six of his starts.

The following season saw him struggle winning only 1 of his 8 starts. In the 1985/1986 season Desert Orchid was sent over the bigger obstacles after falling in his first race over the smaller hurdles, he won four races this season and eventually ran in his first grade 1 race at Cheltenham in the King George v1 chase, winning by 15 lenghts.

Desert Orchid was to win various valuable races over the next few years, but perhaps his greatest achievement was to come in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup, the hair still stands up on the back of your neck when you watch this.

Everything seemed to be against him, the going was heavy, the distance was a step up but he battled all the way, he was a close second to Ten Plus who had been going very well when he fell 3 out, at this point Desert Orchid was joined by the mud loving Yahoo, what we witnessed next was pure courage and determination from one of the greatest race horses to have lived.
Desert Orchid dug in deep and at one point it seemed like Yahoo would win but that was not to be, on the run in he accelerated past Yahoo and won by one and a half lenghts, the cheer from the crowd was immense. His jockey, Simon sherwood was quoted as saying "Ive never known a horse so brave, he hated every step of the way in the ground but dug as deep as he could go."

Desert Orchid was to win the Gold Cup four times along with other top class races before he was retired in 1991, Dessie died aged 27.

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