Blast From The Past: Racing Post Trophy

'Celtic Swing’s breathtaking performance in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster in October seems destined to be enshrined in legend. He turned a Group 1 event into a one-horse race, stamping his authority in a matter of strides when sent about his business three furlongs out and drawing further and further clear, ridden out to the finish, to win by twelve lengths, the widest margin of victory ever recorded in a Group 1 race for two-year-olds in Britain. Without any shadow of doubt, on any rational interpretation, this was the performance of an outstanding two-year-old, outstanding not only in terms of his contemporaries but comparable with the best we’ve seen.’

Racehorses of 1994 awarded the Lady Herries-trained Celtic Swing the exceptional rating of 138 for a two-year-old which put him 15 lb clear of the next-best juvenile, the unbeaten French-trained Dewhurst Stakes winner Pennekamp. Celtic Swing was the highest-rated horse of any age in Racehorses that year, earning him the rare accolade for a two-year-old of Horse of the Year.

However, not everyone was so impressed with his Doncaster performance. Celtic Swing topped the International Classifications, but only with a 6 lb margin of superiority over Pennekamp – ‘a ludicrous understatement of his supremacy’ – according to Racehorses.

The manner of Celtic Swing’s Racing Post Trophy victory – he clearly relished the step up to a mile and the soft ground – might have been unexpected, but he lined up at Doncaster against seven rivals as very much the one to beat. He had made a winning debut at Ayr in the summer by four lengths and had then broken the track record for two-year-olds at Ascot when winning the Hyperion Stakes by eight lengths (with another ten to the third), making him ante-post favourite for the Derby and prompting owner Peter Savill to describe him as ‘the best I’ve owned in seventeen years.’

Ridden at Doncaster as in all his races by Savill’s jockey Kevin Darley (who’d recommended the colt to the owner early in the year), Celtic Swing was sent off at even money with the listed Somerville Tattersall Stakes winner Annus Mirabilis, the Royal Lodge Stakes third Juyush and the Newmarket sales race winner Don Corleone his closest rivals in the betting. They duly followed him home in the same order, albeit a long way behind, Don Corleone beaten more than twenty lengths in fourth.

Outstanding as he was on the day at Doncaster, Celtic Swing’s performance served only to fuel the highest hopes for his classic season. He didn’t reach the same heights at three, going down by a head to Pennekamp on good to firm ground when odds on for the 2000 Guineas and then controversially by-passing the Derby due to fears about unsuitably quick ground again. He did win the Prix du Jockey Club instead but then suffered what proved a career-ending knee injury in the Irish Derby. 

‘Any attempt to justify the glowing tribute to Celtic Swing in Racehorses of 1994 runs the risk of sounding hollow to readers who backed the horse for the Guineas and Derby’ admitted the following year’s Annual, ‘…but by no stretch of the imagination can a horse who wins a classic and suffers a narrow defeat in another be labelled a failure. Celtic Swing was an outstanding two-year-old and a very good three-year-old.’