St Nicholas Abbey: Five of his best

1. Doncaster, 24th October 2009 - Racing Post Trophy
A significant performance not only from the horse's perspective, where he showed the devastating turn of foot which had won him the Beresford Stakes to even greater effect when routing a field filled with smart performers and winning on the bridle. His performance figure was 123, higher than that of previous winners Motivator, Authorized and High Chaparral and he ended the season as Timeform's top rated two-year-old. It was also significant in signalling the race as the end-of-season target for Ballydoyle's top juveniles and paving the way for the impressive victories of Camelot and Kingsbarns in recent years.

2. Epsom, 3rd June 2011 - Coronation Cup
On his second start back after missing the previous year's Derby through a muscle injury, St Nicholas Abbey came back to his brilliant best when beating multiple Group 1-winning filly and subsequent Breeder's Cup winner Midday. What was most imposing about this performance in particular was that he was not suited by the sedate early pace and found himself moving awkwardly on the famous Epsom camber: he had to be wound up down the back straight in order to produce the trademark turn of foot in the closing stages and win by a length. The Downs' famous undulations evidently didn't bother St Nicholas Abbey too much overall, as he would of course go on to complete a Coronation Cup hat-trick. 

3. Santa Anita, 5th November 2011 - Breeders' Cup Turf
After disappointing at Ascot and in the Arc at Longchamp, partnered by Joseph O'Brien for only the third time St Nicholas Abbey pulled another classy performance out of the bag to make his rider the youngest-ever winner at the prestigious meeting. As at Epsom, he was not suited by a muddling early pace but St Nicholas Abbey quickened to cut down their rivals in the home straight to score by an impressive two-and-three-quarter-lengths from the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Sea Moon. He ended the season with a Timeform rating of 130, the highest figure he would ever achieve.

4. York, 22nd August 2012 - Juddmonte International 
As likeable and consistent as St Nicholas Abbey undoubtedly was, he was never going to be a match for Frankel, and so it proved when the pair met in front of a packed York Racecourse last summer. On the figures, the Juddmonte was about as well as St Nicholas Abbey ever ran; he very briefly served it up to Frankel three furlongs out before being put firmly in his place, but the chances are he'd have beaten subsequent Lockinge winner Farhh (who nosed him out of second) had he not been asked to challenge a true Goliath of the sport.

5. Meydan, 30th March 2013 - Dubai Sheema Classic
Avenging a narrow defeat by Cirrus des Aigles in this race the previous year, St Nicholas Abbey took his career earnings to almost £5 million with another high-class performance on the international stage. Ridden a little more prominently to avoid a repeat of when collared in the closing stages in 2012, he went on to score by two-and-a-quarter-lengths from top Japanese filly Gentildonna and give Aidan O'Brien only his third winner at the Dubai Carnival.

The Sheema Classic was the fifth of St Nicholas Abbey's six Group 1 victories, five of which came in a two-year, 15-race spell. That's not a bad record for a horse deemed a failure after he'd flopped when favourite for the 2000 Guineas! 

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