A March foal, Golden Horn raced just
once as a juvenile, overcoming greenness to win a run-of-the-mill
maiden stakes race over an extended mile at Nottingham in October,
2014. However, he improved significantly from two to three, winning
the Listed Feilden Stakes, over 1 mile 1 furlong, on his reappearance
at Newmarket the following April and readily accounting for stable
companion Jack Hobbs in the Betfred Dante Stakes, over 1 mile 2½
furlongs, at York a month later.
Golden Horn was supplemented for the
Derby, at a cost of £75,000 to connections, and faced 11 rivals,
headed by Jack Hobbs and Giovanni Canaletto, trained by Aidan
O’Brien, who’d been narrowly beaten in the Group 3 Gallinule
Stakes at the Curragh on his previous outing. He was sent off 13/8
favourite and duly collected, running on well in the closing stages
to record a comfortable 3½-length victory over his old rival Jack
Hobbs.
Winning jockey Frankie Dettori, who’d
first won the Derby eight years earlier on Authorized, said
afterwards, “When you’re young, you don’t really appreciate the
full importance of this Derby, so it means a great deal to win it for
a second time.”
Golden Horn took on the older horses
for the first time in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July and,
although involved in a good battle with The Grey Gatsby throughout
the last half a mile, stretched clear in the closing stages to win by
3½ lengths. He faced The Grey Gatsby again in the Juddmonte
International Stakes at York the following month and, as he had at
Sandown, started 4/9 favourite to extend his unbeaten record to six.
Golden Horn beat The Grey Gatsby easily enough but, surprisingly,
failed to overcome 50/1 outsider Arabian Queen – a three-year-old
filly officially rated 21lb inferior – going down by a neck.
Golden Horn resumed winning ways in the
Irish Champion Stakes, won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe under a
fine ride by Frankie Dettori and finished his career by finishing
second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland, Kentucky.
