Giant's Causeway: Racehorses essay

Giant's Causeway was never out of the first two in 13 career starts, unbeaten as a juvenile in 1999 before winning the St James's Palace Stakes, the Coral-Eclipse, the Sussex Stakes, the Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion Stakes the following season.

Famous offspring of Giant's Causeway include the 2000 Guineas winner Footstepsinthesand (pictured above) and the 1000 Guineas and Coronation stakes winner Ghanaati.

A statement issued by Coolmore read: "Throughout his 18 years at stud, Giant's Causeway sired an incredible 31 Group One winners worldwide, and will leave behind a long-lasting legacy as a successful sire of sires and top broodmare sire."

We remember the six-time Group 1 winner with an extract from his essay in Racehorses of 2000:

Racing has unique qualities, yet in common with all spectator sports it benefits from star performers capable not only of catching and keeping the hearts and minds of existing fans but of adding to the stock. Occasionally horses who are not champions can achieve the desired effect - a case in point is Provideo, rated 112 in Racehorses of 1984 when Horse of the Year after breaking the twentieth-century record for races won by a two-year-old. The reason for this is simple, since, much as in political elections, equine popularity is proof of majority opinion, not necessarily of exceptional merit.

There's no doubt that Giant's Causeway was one of the most popular and most talked-about horses in Europe within recent memory. He put more into the latest season than any of the top horses in terms of effort and this, together with his admirable record of five Group 1 victories and four places from nine starts in such company, means it matters not one iota that he fell a touch short of being the best of his generation. Being a touch short of Sinndar, and the same as King's Best, is a credit, not a debit, and neither of those colts, nor the pick of the older horses, Dubai Millennium, Montjeu and Kalanisi, could outscore him in toughness, determination and the ability to maintain form at the topmost level for the best part of seven months without a break and without a single easy race.

That, and the number of nail-biting finishes in which he was involved, is what set Giant's Causeway apart from his peers, that is what entitles him to unstinting praise, and that is what led to his being voted Horse of the Year in a poll carried out by the Racehorse Owners Association. In similar vein to the now-defunct Horse of the Year award voted on by the Press and run by the Racegoers Club, the ROA prize is awarded to the horse who `contributed most to the pleasure of the racing public during the year,' and with these terms of reference it is difficult to disagree with the outcome of the vote.