Cheltenham Memories: Dessie secures his legend

Desert Orchid was one of jumps racing's most popular characters

Keith Melrose revisits the love-hate relationship between National Hunt's main stage and one of the game's most popular exponents...

When looking at the most well-loved racehorses, there are a handful of qualifying criteria: an extraordinary level of ability, tangible courage and loveable eccentricity. Being a front-runner or a grey also helps appreciably. Not even Kauto Star had all of these attributes, but Desert Orchid did.

In terms of eccentricity, it should be stressed that Dessie's was not in the realms of Harchibald or Morley Street, he merely had a half-explicable antipathy to left-handed tracks. Even his flaws were no real fault of his own. In these cynical times of judging an athlete by their 'marketability', Desert Orchid would have been the perfect endorsee.

Another factor which can help in endearing you to the masses is overcoming adversity or, in more quarrelsome terms, proving people wrong. This was something Desert Orchid made a habit of, especially in the early part of his career. His first season over hurdles was remarkable in nothing more than its mediocrity: the tailpiece on his comment in Chasers & Hurdlers 1982/83 simply reads 'pulls hard', a statement that looks almost laughably phlegmatic with the benefit of 30 years' worth of hindsight. 

Desert Orchid would belie those humble beginnings the following season, recording six wins (including the Tolworth and Kingwell) with his novice status intact and eventually going off second-favourite in Dawn Run's Champion Hurdle. He flopped in that race, then, after enduring a fairly nondescript campaign in 1984/85 prompted that season's Chasers & Hurdlers to assert that "there seems no doubt that Desert Orchid is unsuited by a left-handed track" and he "is always likely to be best at around two miles." 

Although it would be another four years before Desert Orchid could rightfully raise two metaphorical fingers in our direction, he laid the foundations in his novice season over fences: a second-place finish in the Scilly Isles and a third place in the Arkle necessitated a re-evaluation, if not a complete upheaval, of previous impressions. 

One of Desert Orchid's most famous triumphs over his doubters came in the 1986 King George VI Chase. Few believed he'd stay three miles: not Timeform (we can assume from later comments), not the betting public who sent him off at 16/1, not even stable jockey Colin Brown, who abandoned him in favour of the more fancied Combs Ditch. New jockey Simon Sherwood was clearly unperturbed, though, letting Desert Orchid go off in his usual trail-blazing fashion. Six minutes and 18 seconds later, the pair crossed the line 15 lengths clear of anything else.

That was the start of Desert Orchid's reign as the people's champion, but it also started the story of his Cheltenham odyssey. Already beaten twice at the Festival, he was a close third to Pearlyman in the 1987 Queen Mother Champion Chase and second to that same rival in the 1988 renewal, leading some to continue with the school of thought that said Desert Orchid wasn't effective on left-handed tracks and that victory in a championship race such as the Queen Mother or the Gold Cup would always elude him.

In between the 1988 Champion Chase and the 1989 Gold Cup, Dessie (as his adoring public now called him) amassed a spectacular record. After the Champion Chase, he won the race now known as the Bowl and the race still known to some as the Whitbread in what was left of the 1987/88 season. The following winter, he won a level-weights chase at Wincanton (which is now a handicap that carries his name), the Tingle Creek (then a handicap), his second King George, the Victor Chandler (again, a handicap in those days) and the Gainsborough Chase at Sandown. The Victor Chandler was a particularly famous race, with Dessie putting up a spirited fightback to overhaul Panto Prince, who received 22 lb, in the shadow of the post.

Despite this simply staggering record, Dessie was still seen as susceptible going left-handed and come the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup he was not as strong a favourite as might have been expected, 5/2 and only half the price of his nearest market rival, Irish Hennessy winner Carvill's Hill. 

There was another consideration besides the track: the 1989 Gold Cup was almost never run. Heavy rain overnight meant that officials were close to abandoning the fixture, but were ultimately convinced the ground was raceable. The result, though, was very testing ground, hardly ideal for a horse, like Desert Orchid, who had never really excelled on left-handed tracks nor in a bog. Despite his starting price, the doubts hung over Desert Orchid like never before.

Regardless of what may or may not suit him about race conditions, there was only one way Desert Orchid was ever going to be asked to approach the Gold Cup: from the front. He led from 1988 winner Charter Party and market third-choice Ten Plus throughout the first circuit, his jumping fairly straight but his white legs gradually darkening in the mud. Back in the field, Golden Freeze fell at the sixth, then more significantly Carvill's Hill at the next and 15/2 shot The Thinker at the tenth.

Of the original 13, just 10 set out on their final circuit. Here Dessie was joined, by Ten Plus and Cavvie's Clown, the last-named having little more than a walk-on part in the unfolding drama before he dropped away. Ten Plus, however, gave the favourite some real problems. With the pair pressing on down the back, mistakes crept into Desert Orchid's jumping for the first time, allowing Ten Plus to take a clear lead soon after the water.  

At the last ditch, six fences out, Ten Plus was still clear, though on sufferance while Desert Orchid stalked with Sherwood motionless. Slalom's exit at that fence meant that the chasing group was down to three: Charter Party, 25/1-shot Yahoo and 50/1 chance Ballyhane. 

Three out, everything changed: Ten Plus, at this point practically joined by Desert Orchid, fell and tragically broke a rear leg. Dessie was now in front, but all of a sudden under pressure while Yahoo tanked on his inside. Charter Party was still in touch, but under firm pressure and looking third best, while Ballyhane had also fallen three out (officially he was recorded as being brought down, but replays appear to show him falling independently of Ten Plus).

At the racecourse commentator's mention of Desert Orchid being narrowly ahead as they turned in, the simmering crowd boiled over, a roar that would have greeted many Gold Cup winners going up as they cheered on the grey. Yet, as they appeared in profile, this was stymied by Yahoo emerging with a clear lead on the run to two out. Somehow, despite looking weary, Desert Orchid had drawn almost level again jumping the second last, being greeted with another almighty roar from the crowd. Things had barely changed come the last; Yahoo was around a neck up, but a clean jump from Desert Orchid whipped the spectators into frenzy once more as they readied themselves for the long climb home.

The fortunes of the race can be heard through nothing more than the noise of the crowd: initially checked as Yahoo got away from the fence the quicker, the volume climbed as Desert Orchid responded, wandering but keeping on dourly as though playing to his crowd. With 100 yards to go, it became apparent: the grey was going to do it! Having looked the less-likely winner jumping the last, sheer bloody-mindedness had carried Desert Orchid to a one-and-a-half-length success. Sherwood could even afford to stand up in the irons at the moment of victory.

Despite an impressive covering of umbrellas raised against the gloomy conditions, myriad hats and copies of the Sporting Life flew in triumph above the Chelteham crowd. It seems everyone you come across who attended that day has a story, which usually involves a variation of the following, as described by joint-owner Richard Burridge in his book The Grey Horse: The True Story of Desert Orchid:

"Three-quarters of an hour later the Turf Club was emptying... I warily spotted an unsteady figure lurching rather aggressively towards me, but he was so comically drunk with his bashed trilby and crumpled coat that I couldn't help smiling.
"You know," he said in a friendly-cum-aggressive manner, as he clamped a hand on my shoulder. Then his face lit up in a broad grin. 'You know, I wanna tell you something. I had fawty parns on Yarhoo at 33-1 - and I was shouting for your bloody hawse on the run in!" And with that he grinned and lurched off."

In terms of performance, 1989's wasn't even an extraordinary renewal of the Gold Cup - Yahoo spent the vast majority of his career as a handicapper - but the significance of Desert Orchid overcoming the greatest obstacle in his career made it one instantly destined for folklore. Simon Sherwood left no doubt about the unquantifiable merit of the performance:

"I've never known a horse so brave. He hated every step of the way in the ground and dug as deep as he could possibly go."

The 1989 Gold Cup might have seen the star of Desert Orchid at its brightest, but it would burn for many years afterwards. The following season, he put up two of his finest performances, first in the Racing Post Chase (in which he carried the equivalent of a BHA mark of 185 to an eight-length win) and Irish Grand National. He would also win the 1989 and 1990 renewals of the King George, setting the benchmark of four wins in that race that would take Kauto Star 21 years to surpass. He retired from racing with a fall, already beaten when coming down three out in the 1991 King George. 

A long and dignified retirement was what Desert Orchid deserved, and it was what he got. Splitting his time between his owners' and trainer's stables, he continued to make public appearances in aid of charity, still jumping fences on King George day into his 20s. He got the full Arkle treatment in terms of his fan mail, too, with a Christmas card from Australia addressed to 'Desert Orchid, somewhere in England' reaching Elsworth's yard. Desert Orchid was still making public appearances until just weeks before his death in November 2006, at the age of 27. His official fan club, run by his owners, was wound up a year later, but not before it had raised more than 100,000 for charity. Such adoration isn't bad for a horse that spent so much of his time proving people wrong.