Guy Harwood remembers motoring to the top with Dancing Brave

While his sole interest may now be focused on selling high-performance motor cars, the story 30 years ago was an altogether contrasting picture for Guy Harwood as horsepower of a very different kind was the centre of his attention.

Although the former Pulborough-based trainer can reflect with great pride on a career in racing that yielded many high-profile wins, it is the year of 1986 that he will best be remembered for thanks to the mighty Dancing Brave.

And he is able to fondly recall a story that was nearly not his to tell.

He said: "Jeremy Tree always had the pick of Prince Khalid Abdullah's horses at that time. Fortunately for me he had two or three Lyphard horses that hadn't really gone on, so Dancing Brave wasn't really on his list. He was very much on my list.

"Jeremy didn't like Lyphard's. You had to be quite gentle with them. They are very highly-bred racehorses. They didn't want much training. Jeremy was pretty hard on his horses and I think he blew them out and they couldn't take that. It was my benefit."

As is often the case with the very best horses, the signs are usually pretty conclusive early on that what they achieve on the track will be special. Dancing Brave was no different.

Harwood remembered: "James Delahooke bought him in America, when he came back to me he was a late May foal and he went down to the bottom yard with the backward yearlings.

"One day in July I was watching the third lot from the bottom yard and said to my lad Chris Read, 'what's that horse Chris?', he said 'that's Dancing Brave', and I said 'drop him off at the top yard on the way out'. That's when he first came into my life."

After winning both his starts at two Dancing Brave started his three-year-old career where he left off with wins in the Craven and 2000 Guineas before a heartbreaking defeat in the Derby.

For most racing fans the endearing image is that of his mesmerizing display in that year's Arc, but the performance in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes just a few months earlier was equally as important.

After bouncing back from his shock reverse in the Derby under Greville Starkey to Shahrastani with victory in the Eclipse, the pair locked horns once again in what was one of the most anticipated clashes of the season.

But the battle between the two never materialised as Dancing Brave, ridden by Pat Eddery, simply blew away his Epsom conqueror, the subsequent winner of the Irish Derby.

With Shahrastani beaten halfway down the home straight Dancing Brave swept to the front before defeating the rallying Shardari by three-quarters of a length.

Harwood said: "There was the Shahrastani rematch and everything that had gone on. I didn't have much doubt he would win, but there was a lot of relief.

"I think he was going too well and he ran up the rear of the horse in front of him as the pacemakers suddenly put the brakes on, I think that's what happened. He arrived there with a double handful and of course he went too soon.

"There was quite a lot of anxiety, but he was a good horse to train. I don't think you are any good at anything if you are not nervous. If they've not got a big set of wheels and a good engine inside they are not going to last.

"The most confident I have been was ahead of the Arc. There are just times you know they are 110 per cent."

The story of Dancing Brave ended with defeat on his final start in the Breeders' Cup Turf, but it was by and large a tale of success unrivalled by many that have trodden the Turf since.

For Harwood, though, as much as the victories Eddery partnered him to in both the King George and the Arc were memorable, the absence of Starkey from the saddle at Ascot is something that still sticks with him to the current day.

He said: "Pat did a great job in the Arc, that was a memorable occasion, while Greville was a wonderful stable jockey.

"He never put me wrong, ever. He had a wonderful technique and knew exactly what he was riding. He got off Dancing Brave the first time he rode him and said that will be my Derby ride.

"The sad thing for me was that Greville was not on him (Ascot). He was a great stable jockey and things didn't go right in the Derby. I never criticised him as these things happen, but he got a lot of stick from the public.

"He served me really well and he took it badly. It destroyed him. He was very serious and took a lot of time and trouble and worried a lot about what was going on. It really hurt him."