Which horse holds the course record for the Derby?

The record for the widest winning margin in the history of the Derby is still held by Shergar, who cantered home ten lengths ahead of his nearest rival, Glint Of Gold, in 1981. Interestingly, though, while Shergar was visually highly impressive, his winning time of 2 minutes 44.21 seconds was the slowest since Airborne covered the mile-and-a-half Derby Course in 2 minutes 44.6 seconds, on soft going, in 1946.

Shergar was, of course, trained by Michael Stoute; as Sir Michael Stoute, following his knighthood for services to tourism in his native Barbados in 1998, he also saddled the 2010 Derby winner, Workforce, who recorded the fastest winning time in the history of the Epsom Classic. Despite being one of the least experienced horses in the field, the twice-raced son of King’s Best tackled the long-time leader At First Sight with just over a furlong to run and soon went clear, staying on well in the closing stages to win by seven lengths. On the prevailing good to firm going, his winning time of 2 minutes 31.33 seconds eclipsed the previous course record of 2 minutes 32.31 seconds, set by Cartier Champion Three-year-old Colt, Lammtarra, in 1995.

What is the highest grossing horse racing movie of all time?

‘Best’ is of course subjective, as there are a tonne of horse and horse themed movies that are peoples’ ‘firm favourites’, to borrow a racing term. As such a more objective way of measuring the impact and success of a horse racing themed movie is to look at its box office numbers. In the sports genre there are hugely successful franchises like Rocky and Fast and Furious. While horse racing films aren’t typically at quite that level commercially there a couple of notable exceptions in the highest grossing list.

Interestingly in 1957 the highest grossing sports film of the year was the zany Indian horse and motor racing movie Naya Daur (New Era), grossing $11,340,000. This was the sole occasion a horse racing themed movie has been the highest grossing sports film of the year. The plot of New Era involved a man vs machine element of villager riding a cart horse against a landlord riding a bus. What’s not to like!

The highest grossing horse racing movie of all time is, relatively speak, quite recent. It’s Seabiscuit (2003), based on the best selling non-fiction book Seabiscuit: An American Legend. The movie is listed on Wikipedia as the 33rd highest grossing sports movie of all time and is based of SeaBiscuit’s victory against triple crown winner War Admiral. It stars Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire and Chris Cooper and was generally well received and with positive reviews on the likes of IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Thecritics consensus on the latter is that it’s “a life-affirming, if saccharine, epic treatment of a spirit-lifting figure in sports history”.

 

 

 

Can a man run faster than a horse?

There have been a number of gimmicky man vs horse videos on Youtube over the years, including one where former British 100m runner Dwain Chambers takes on a horse over that distance. He wins the race but it’s clear that the horse was at nowhere near top speed.

The fact of the matter is that horses can handily outrun a human being over such a distance. The fastest speed achieved by a horse on record is 43.97 mph, by Winning Brew in the United States in May of 2008. That would equate to a 100m time of a little over 5 seconds at top speed throughout. Another example, the fastest Melbourne Cup winner, Kingston Rule is known to have reached a top speed of 36.47 mph, which would result in a 6.1 seconds 100m at top speed.

For perspective sake, a Cheetah can cover 100m in 3.9 seconds. 100m World Record Holder Usian Bolt  is known to have reached a top speed of 27.42 mph, which is 8.2 seconds at top speed (of course again not factoring in that people have to get into their stride). This falls far short of the speed of a horse. In fact, his performance is more comparable to that of a….. wombat – which can reach speeds of 24.85 mph – 9 seconds over a 100m distance.

How about over a longer distance? Funny you should ask, as there is a 22 mile Man versus Horse Marathon held annually in the Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells (and other Man vs Horse races held in Scotland, New Zealand and elsewhere). Its inception came by way of a landlord overhearing an argument between two men in his pub over whether a man could beat a horse over a significant distance. The race consists of runners vs riders on horseback. Held every year since 1980, a horse has won every year but twice, making a clear winner of this front too. In 2019 American ultra-runner Michael Wardian gave it a shot. He needn’t have bothered, as he failed to beat both the fastest horse and fthe astest runner!

 

Which Horses Have Recorded the Fastest Gold Cup Times?

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is regarded as one of the ultimate tests of stamina in horse racing. Not only must horses tackle over 3 miles of course and 22 fences; they must also battle an energy-sapping uphill finish to claim the prize. Moreover, they must do this in the company of the best long-distance chasers in the business.

We know, of course, that winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup is an incredible feat, but what about doing so in record time? Due to the different tactics employed and the impact of the ground, horse racing doesn’t look at finishing times in the same manner as, say, Olympic sprinting. Nevertheless, it’s pretty impressive when a horse goes hell for leather in a race designed to defeat those without true stamina.

Below we are going to look at some of those fastest and most-notable Gold Cup times. MansionBet has a quiz on the most-recent Gold Cup winners if you want to refresh your memory on the subject, but we are going to examine the fastest winners of the biggest prize jumps racing.

Poet Prince Holds the Old Course Record

The record finishing time actually goes to a little-known horse, Poet Prince, who clocked in at an incredible 6:15.60 in 1941. This was run on the Old Course at Cheltenham, and the 1941 renewal was not seen as a quality race for various reasons, including the fact that the Second World War was casting a shadow over proceedings. Still, Poet Prince, owned by the legendary Dorothy Paget, will always have this claim to fame.

In 2011, Long Run became the first horse to complete the race on the New Course in under six and a half minutes, clocking in at 6:29.70. When you think about it, Long Run almost had to do it quicker than usual as he faced a field containing Kauto Star, Denman and Imperial Commander. In the end, Nicky Henderson’s 6-year-old finished 7 lengths ahead of Denman, completing the quickest Gold Cup time for the New Course (since 1959).

 

Other horses have come pretty close to breaking the 6:30 mark before. The closest before Long Run and Poet Prince was none other than Golden Miller in 1935, who clocked in at 6:30.00 exactly when winning his fourth Gold Cup. Golden Miller only squeezed home by ¾ of a length ahead of Thomond II and 5 lengths ahead of Kellsboro’ Jack. So, you’d imagine that both of those horses did enough in terms of time to win a Gold Cup in a normal year. It’s just unfortunate that their careers coincided with that of one of the greatest in history.

L’Escargot Crawled Home in 1971

Generally speaking, the times have got faster over the years. Over seven minutes was the norm in the early years. Easter Hero was the first to break the seven-minute mark when winning in 1929 with a time of 6:57.00. Once the switch to the New Course happened in 1959, clocking times of between 6:30 and 7:00 seemed to be the norm, with a few exceptions.

 

As for the slowest Gold Cup winner? It’s the aptly named L’Escargot, who finished the race in 8:00.60 in 1971. Remarkably, L’Escargot was a considerable distance ahead of the field. The time was a full one minute 15 seconds longer than L’Escargot’s 1970 victory. As for the last winner? Al Boum Photo clocked in at 6:50.38 when taking his second Gold Cup in March 2020.

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