Blast From The Past: 2000 Guineas

Only a dozen or so horses have achieved a rating of 140 or more in the nearly seventy years that Timeform has been assessing horses on the Flat. On average, therefore, you would expect horses that good to come along maybe twice a decade. The chances of two such horses being around at the same time, let alone ever meeting each other in a race, are therefore extremely remote, but that’s what happened in the memorable 1971 2000 Guineas contested by Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef.

It was only by the end of the season, of course, that the extent of their abilities could be properly appreciated. Timeform couldn’t split them, jointly awarding them the Horse of the Year title with ratings of 141 apiece. It had been a different story at Newmarket in the spring, though, when, beforehand, Mill Reef was clearly the more favoured of the pair, sent off at 6/4 with Brigadier Gerard at 11/2.

Although unbeaten in four starts at two, including the Middle Park Stakes, Brigadier Gerard was only third choice in the betting. Mill Reef’s chief rival instead was reckoned to be My Swallow (2/1), he too unbeaten and the only horse to have lowered Mill Reef’s colours (beating him a short head in France in the Prix Robert Papin) at two.

Having won sixteen of their seventeen starts between them, it wasn’t surprising that few wanted to take on this trio and the field of six was the first single-figure line-up for a 2000 Guineas in the twentieth century – there’s been only one other since. Of the remainder, the most noteworthy runner was Minsky, brother to the previous season’s triple crown winner Nijinsky.

The pace was a strong one on the good to firm ground, with My Swallow making the running down the middle of the course, closely attended by Mill Reef with Brigadier Gerard just behind them. ‘Just as we were finding it difficult to decide which of the leading pair would last the better’ said Racehorses of 1971, ‘Brigadier Gerard, set alight running into the Dip, responded most gamely to vigorous riding, took command on the rising ground and strode away strongly to win in very clear-cut fashion by three lengths from Mill Reef who lasted slightly better than My Swallow.’ They finished well clear of an unenthusiastic-looking Minsky flashing his tail.

Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef went their separate ways afterwards, each winning his remaining starts at three, the latter stepping up in trip to win the Derby, Eclipse, King George and Arc. Brigadier Gerard was kept to a mile until returning to Newmarket on his final three-year-old start for the Champion Stakes when he only narrowly kept his unbeaten record, encountering heavy ground on his first try at ten furlongs.

Brigadier Gerard was eventually beaten for the only time in his life at York the following August, but he proved better still that season, winning another seven races (including the King George) and taking his rating to 144, a mark only surpassed since by Frankel some forty years later.