Hall of Fame
Harbinger Rated the Best in the World
Legend has it that in the eleventh century the buxom Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of Coventry but only one resident, Peeping Tom, dared squint through the shutters at her ladyship in all her glory.
The racing world salivated in anticipation of its next glimpse of Harbinger, himself a horse of infinite attraction, after his King George victory parade, a victory the like of which no one present had ever set eyes on.
Many simply didn’t believe their sight or senses could be so overwhelmed – hence that dazzling, luminous English mid-summer day thousands fell silent and even those who had seen it all, the gnomic Sir Michael Stoute, the restless Aidan O’Brien, were confounded.
Harbinger winning the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot the following month
The panorama was, in every sense, stunning…then pandemonium broke out, overwhelming all ages in a headlong rush to witness the phenomenon returning to Ascot winner’s area, hallowed ground for a transcendent racehorse. Sceptics and converts alike pinched themselves; there seemed no criteria by which to assess the majesty of the performance.
On the level of the mundane it was a record-breaking victory distance, a record-busting time: on another it was done with style and panache.
Without standards of comparison we imagine ourselves limitless. Wherever racing men gather to discuss all-time best performances of the thoroughbred, the name of Harbinger will thrust into contention.
We’d barely recovered our breath from Workforce’s seven-length Investec Derby romp but where was he in the Betfair King George? Another parish. Even Harbinger’s vaulting career, unbeaten at four in races rich with winners, left us unprepared. Where did the eleven-length margin, achieved with the élan associated with his jockey Olivier Peslier, come from?
Peslier, many times French champion, gifted a once in a lifetime experience when Sir Michael Stoute’s stable jockey Ryan Moore proved inseparable from Workforce, gave me his considered view on Arc day.
“I wouldn’t like to say there is a ‘best horse’ I have ridden – that would be disrespectful to many wonderful horses. I’m sad he isn’t running and sad for the Arc. The race is missing him.”
Olivier raised those famous eyebrows when I suggested some pundits were questioning Harbinger’s standing. The jockey had said to friends that he would win the King George when he’d sat on Harbinger for the first time on Newmarket gallops ten days pre-race.
“He is right up there with the great ones,” he said clinically. “Up with the Peintre Celebres, yes you mention him in the same breath. It was a privilege to ride him.”
Peslier ventures most winters to Japan, where he is revered. “I am truly looking forward to renewing acquaintance when I go,” he said.
Peintre Celebre (O. Peslier), five-length winner of the 1997 Arc was the previous highest-rated horse in the International Classifications. For 2010 the team of handicappers rated Harbinger 6lb clear best thoroughbred in the world, ahead of Breeders’ Cup winner Blame.
Consternation is the parent of misgiving. Such rare feats as Harbinger’s amaze rather than surprise: when we cannot explain we court controversy. The world’s supreme athletes, be they in boxing, tennis, Formula One, golf are always there to be shot at: Harbinger dodged the ultimate bullet; the occasional pot shot will rebound on the perpetrator.
Who knows what heights he might have attained? One hitherto unreported clue – the vets’ panel at Ascot comprises the nation’s very best practitioners.
Following official requirements, post-race they checked Harbinger’s heart and lungs. Their unanimous judgement was that they had never had a horse recover normal rates so readily.
Whether Moore would have challenged Peslier to maintain their partnership in the Arc is another irresolvable poser. History relates that Workforce and Moore, seventeen lengths behind Harbinger at Ascot, were dominant in Paris.
17th April 2010 - Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes (registered as The John Porter)(Gr 3) - Newbury and 7th May 2010 - Boodles Diamond Ormonde Stakes (Gr 3) - Chester
The career-terminating leg fracture Harbinger sustained at Newmarket within a fortnight of his finest hour will, perversely, ensure his immortality.
Mystique is at least as essential as palpable achievement for posterity’s sake; mystique is provocative and our loyalties thrive on provocation.
Age has burnished the memory of Arkle, of Ribot and Sea-Bird and anybody who saw them is entitled to query whether they may admit another god to their pantheon.
Argue all you like, Ascot sanctions Harbinger a shout in the same breath. His obliteration of Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco who moved on to hammer the best of his contemporaries bar Workforce by over five lengths in the Irish Champion Stakes, is indelible in the annals of our sport.
The world’s supreme athletes, be they in boxing, tennis, Formula One, golf are there to be shot at: Harbinger dodged the ultimate bullet; the occasional pot shot will rebound on the perpetrator.
The decision was made not to return him to the track after the operation to secure the injury with two screws. He was sold to Japan, to Shadai Stud which stands aloft in the Orient. There the Yoshida families’ top stallion Sunday Silence was champion sire thirteen times; their products White Muzzle, El Condor Pasa and Deep Impact journeyed west to make their impact in the Arc.
Will European and American breeders regret Harbinger slipped through their fingers? His sire Dansili is Juddmonte’s leading challenger to the stallion ranks of Coolmore and Darley while his dam’s line is peppered with quality.
Harbinger didn’t race at two and didn’t win Group One at ten furlongs, neither fact endearing him to the hidebound. But authentic judges, the International Classification experts and Peslier to name but two, endorse Highclere’s best horse’s greatness.
Someday Harbinger’s record will be overtaken but we shall not go to Ascot again (or race anywhere in the world) quite so innocent of what may unfold; we are now more prepared for the miraculous. In the immediate aftermath Harry Herbert said we may never see the like again but that prospect will not end the search.
How could it be that so soon after Sea The Stars another horse would provoke a Gold Rush? We were gifted a horse whose winning distance at Ascot equalled that of Sea The Stars’ six victories of 2009.
The International Classification panel were mindful, after the furore of underestimating Sea The Stars, of turning Harbinger from a saint into a martyr.
Now the handsome but uncomplicated animal who never caused his stable girl a moment’s concern, who escaped death by a fraction, has spread his wings to the “horse heaven” of Shadai.
We must return to the peephole again, hoping to catch another glimpse of the extraordinary through the shutters of history.
6th May 2009 - the Hull City AFC Premier Dream Maiden Stakes - Chester and 28th July 2009 - Betfair Gordon Stakes (Gr 3) - Goodwood