52
YESTERDAY’S HEROES
RACING AHEADISSUE 178Graham Buddry remembers The Bard and others
2-year-olds
that stand
test of time
I
t’s around this time of year that
the Classic generation has nor-
mally sorted out their own
hierarchy and slotted in with the
older brigade to give us a reason-
able view of the prospective
champions at each distance.
The two-year-olds, however, are a
totally different species. Some have
run well but turn out to be just a flash
in the pan, others are slow burners
who will still improve and others won’t
even see a racecourse. Despite this,
there are usually a few who capture
the imagination and offer succour
through the long winter months to
come.
Many years ago these fragile young-
sters might have had between four
and six starts in their first season and
you’d get a good feeling of their
respective chances of Group or even
Classic glory for the next season. Now,
with better training facilities and more
cautious connections two or three
outings is often more common.
As with many things in life some
exponents of an art are more adept at
one speciality and, as some trainers
are better with fillies or improving
older horses, so some trainers held a
speciality with two-year-olds. Despite
this expertise it still needed a truly
robust and exceptional youngster to
achieve what we will look at today.
Back in 1885 a chestnut colt called
The Bard took the racing world by
storm. With a pedigree that was
exceptionally strong right up to 2½
miles, The Bard was acclaimed as one
of the best horses of his era, which is
even more exceptional when you take
into account how many times he raced
in his first year.
Making his racecourse debut as a
two-year-old in March at Lincoln in the
Brocklesby Stakes, he won the 16
runner race by an easy two lengths.
Initially extending his winning dis-
tances to three lengths at Liverpool
then four lengths at Northampton he
just continued winning. His trainer
placed him well to extend his unbeat-
en sequence through races at Epsom,
Sandown, Windsor and Manchester
before a race at Ascot in which he beat
not only his own age group but a pair
of three-year-olds as well. Having trav-
elled over most of England, often
giving weight to his rivals, his season
finished at Doncaster with a final win
to notch an incredible and record
breaking sixteen victories from asmany outings.
Most unusually, despite such a fre-
netic two year old campaign, The Bard
was every bit as good the following
season at three.
His first race of 1886 was no less than
The Derby itself over a lot further than
he had even run before but, amazingly,
when asked, he flew past every horse
ahead of him, passing Ormonde as
they entered the straight. Ormonde
was one of the greatest ever to grace
the turf, having already won the Two
Thousand Guineas and later to land
the Triple Crown when winning the St
Leger, but at Epsom he had a real task
on his hands pegging back the much
smaller horse.
The Bard followed his second place
at Epsom in the Manchester Cup
where he came second again, just fail-
ing to concede eighteen pounds to the
winner. It would be his last defeat.
By the end of the season various
Plates and Stakes races as well as the
Goodwood Cup and Doncaster Cup
had fallen to The Bard, who retired as
the winner of all bar two of his twenty
five races and but for Ormonde would
have won The Derby as well.
Between 1864 and 1889 three differ-
ent fillies each notched up a dozen
wins in their two year old season, none
of them retaining much ability the fol-
lowing year and so these records
stood for many long years. Then, in
1975, Barry Hills sent out a filly called
Nagwa to set a new fillies record byThe Bard