Derby Memories: Dancing Brave defeated in Derby

Dancing Brave (left) finishes quickly but could never quite overhaul Shahrastani

Keith Melrose looks back on the 1986 Epsom Derby and Dancing Brave's narrow defeat...

'No one remembers who finished second except the guy who finished second.' A famous quote attributed to champion racing driver Bobby Unser. His motives are given away in his grand billing: the winner-takes-all attitude is perfectly applicable in the case of a driven competitor, who is interested only in the glory, not the spectacle.

Take a sport fan's view and you'll get a different answer. They'll tell you that Federer was just as important to the 2008 Wimbledon final as Nadal; Nicklaus as big a part of the 'duel in the sun' as Watson; Crisp as firmly ingrained in the legend of the 1973 Grand National as Red Rum.

These sympathies extend beyond the classic events, too. No one, least of all the victorious Spaniards, will be able to forget Holland's part in the 2010 FIFA World Cup final, the Dutch team's cynical tactics becoming the abiding memory of an essentially mediocre match. It'd also be fair to lay as much blame at the door of Peter Ebdon as Graeme Dott for the sustained bouts of tedium during the 2006 World Snooker Championship final. 

It is rare, though, for the runner-up to be remembered ahead of the winner. Examples normally involve some sort of van de Velde-esque calamity and, although it would be unfair to compare the denouement of the 1986 Derby with a bizarre meltdown in the Barry Burn, it's hard to imagine that the race would have anything like such a prominent place in history were it not for the misfortune suffered by Dancing Brave.

Any Derby staged in the mid-1980s would look fairly alien to a younger racing fan, with its Wednesday slot and unchallenged position as the pinnacle of British- if not world- Flat racing, but in the context of its time the 1986 renewal didn't look anything out of the ordinary beforehand. Remember that we were only five years on from Shergar's stunning 10-length success in the race and 12 months on from Steve Cauthen's masterful front-running ride on Slip Anchor.

Hope hadn't been high for the three-year-olds of 1986, a view reflected in the fact that Dancing Brave, winner of a couple of minor events on his two juvenile starts, spent the winter as favourite for the 2000 Guineas. He had always been highly regarded by trainer Guy Harwood, however, and after taking the Craven on his reappearance Dancing Brave justified 15/8 favouritism for the Guineas in good style, showing what would become his trademark turn of foot to see off Green Desert by three lengths.

Dancing Brave wasn't always sure to go for the Derby. His connections had Futurity Stakes (now RP Trophy) winner Bakharoff in line for the race through the winter, but when that horse met with defeat in the Lingfield Derby Trial on his reappearance it was decided to send Dancing Brave to Epsom, where he was sent off at 2/1 to complete a double most recently achieved by Triple Crown winner Nijinsky in 1970.

In a set-up that looks familiar even now, the Guineas winner's main challenge in the Derby market came from the Dante winner.

Sharahstani had taken a route to the Derby that Michael Stoute (he wasn't knighted until 1998) would make famous, going from maidens straight into a Derby trial en route to Epsom. Of Stoute's five Derby winners, only the aforementioned Shergar had deviated from that path, running in the Futurity Stakes as a juvenile.

Shahrastani had won the Classic Trial at Sandown as a maiden on just his second start before taking the Dante, which he won in workmanlike fashion from Nomrood. That one had previously won the Chester Vase, though, so Shahrastani had legitimate claims to being the strongest candidate besides Dancing Brave, who still had stamina doubts that were unlikely to be levelled at Stoute's charge.

Indeed, stamina was at the heart of the plan Stoute's stable-jockey Walter Swinburn adopted in order to beat the Guineas winner: as Swinburn revealed afterwards, getting first run on Dancing Brave was always felt to offer the strong-staying Shahrastani the best chance.

Even early on in the 1986 Derby, circumstances seemed to be favouring Swinburn's approach. The 1986 Derby appeared to be on the steadier side, with Nomrood taking them along. Swinburn had Shahrastani positioned in fifth, very much in touch, while the experienced Greville Starkey had Dancing Brave positioned at the rear. 

Little changed in the running order before they descended towards Tattenham Corner, but it was on the downhill run that the first signs of things to come materialised. While Swinburn was readying Shahrastani to kick on, Starkey was forced to angle out wide on Dancing Brave, who was going to have to circumnavigate all but a handful of the 17 runners to win. 

Although not initially picking up for pressure, Shahrastani got to the front over two furlongs out. Dancing Brave, chivvied along by Starkey since Tattenham Corner, was by now picking off rivals down the extreme outside; or, as commentator Graham Goode famously put it: 'Dancing Brave starting to motor- but oh, so much to do!'

It was clear inside the last two furlongs that the Derby would be won by either Dancing Brave or Shahrastani. Starkey's mount was clearly finishing the faster, devouring the ground between him and the rest but getting to the leader, who was keeping on as doughtily as Swinburn had anticipated, only much more gradually. Even so, it was only well inside the last 50 yards that it became clear Dancing Brave wasn't going to get there, Shahrastani still half a length clear at the winning post. Swinburn saluted the crowd as he crossed the line, though in a few more strides he'd have more than likely been caught. 

Dancing Brave had evidently stayed the trip; he'd clearly been the best horse: yet he hadn't won. It had been down to a misjudgement on Starkey's part and it appeared that he knew it: a month later, when he and Dancing Brave teamed up to win the Eclipse with more positive tactics applied, he shied away from post-race interviews. 

At the time, it was entirely feasible that his Derby reversal would undermine Dancing Brave's achievements. Fortunately for him, though, he was one of the finest thoroughbreds ever to stand on four legs, and Epsom ultimately represented one of only two defeats throughout his career. The other would be in the Breeders' Cup Turf on his final start, but by then he'd won the Guineas, the Eclipse, the King George and, most famously, the Arc: his place in the annals of sporting history was already secured.

As it turned out, the 1986 Derby would go further in defining the other major players. Goode had the thick end of 25 years to run as a commentator, but is still most readily associated with his deftly-timed exclamation that day.

Shahrastani is arguably harshly done by history: although seen as a lucky Derby winner, his impressive win in the Irish version a week before Dancing Brace won the Eclipse yielded a Timeform rating of 135, making him one of the very best the Aga Khan has ever owned.

The harshest post-script is related to Starkey, however. Pat Eddery took over the ride on Dancing Brave for both the King George (when he reversed the form with Shahrastani) and the Arc, robbing Starkey of his best chances at redemption. 

Greville Starkey ultimately joined the ranks of Doug Sanders and Mike Gatting, remembered for one high-profile defeat as much as for his highly-commendable achievements. When he died of cancer in 2010, most obituaries rightly focused on Starkey's 1,989 winners, or his five classics and numerous other big-race wins across a 33-year career, but Dancing Brave's failure in the Derby, and the fact he was never champion jockey, made for sad footnotes.

Bobby Unser presumably wouldn't have felt much sympathy. Most racing fans did.