How many times did Wayward Lad win the King George VI Chase?

Aficionados of National Hunt racing may well remember Wayward Lad for his exploits in the 1986 Cheltenham Gold Cup, won by Dawn Run, which produced one of the most iconic finishes in the history of the ‘Blue Riband’ event. By then an 11-year-old, Wayward Lad led over the final fence and, briefly, went clear on the run-in, only to drift left under pressure, as his stamina ebbed away, and eventually finish a gallant second, beaten just a length. Wayward Lad had been placed in the Cheltenham Gold Cup once before, when the third home of the ‘Famous Five’ saddled by Michael Dickinson, behind stable companions Bregawn and Captain John, in 1983.

Arguably the best steeplechaser never to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Wayward Lad nonetheless won 28 of his 55 races, including the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby and the Whitbread Gold Label Cup (now the Aintree Bowl) twice apiece and the King George VI Chase at Kempto Park three times. He first won the Boxing Day feature in 1982, as a seven-year-old, when his five opponents included the the likes of Night Nurse, Little Owl and Silver Buck. He defended his title in 1983, comfortably defeating Brown Chamberlin, but failed in his hat-trick bid when a distant third behind Burrough Hill Lad and Combs Ditch in 1984.

Burrough Hill Lad and Combs Ditch were, once again, in the field for the 1985 renewal of the King George VI Chase, but Wayward Lad, by then in the care of Monica Dickinson, mother of Michael, made nonsense of his running the previous year. Sent off a relatively unfancied 12/1 chance in a field of five, he prevailed, but only just, by a neck from Combs Ditch, with odds-on favourite Burrough Hill Lad only fourth.