The Grey Horse

Grey horses have a special charisma - indeed, there are now even whole races dedicated to them. But Desert Orchid was also an astounding record breaker - winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Whitbread Gold Cup, the Irish Grand National, and an extraordinary four-times victor in the prestigious Queen Mother Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day. His triumphs, and his rare failures, became front-page news: he is unquestionably the only horse in Britain to have attained a kind of rock-star celebrity. Though he ran his last race in 1990, his fame is such that at the age of 24 he still puts in regular personal appearances at Cheltenham on Gold Cup Day and Kempton on Boxing Day, unquestionably as one of the biggest stars of the show. Richard Burridge has been Desert Orchid's owner from the beginning; this is his inside story of one of the bravest horses British racing has ever seen.