Dancing Brave documentary

One for the notebook cheers George….

Some good stuff in there, 'ace, like highlighting how he left a top class sprinter (Green Desert) for dead off a steady pace in the Guineas, and ran the penultimate furlong of the Derby in about ten seconds flat.

I’m one of the odd punters George who thinks he couldn’t handle the hill at Epsom hence the result…

I think Guy Harwood said the same….the Arc win was probably the best for me tbf…..i back it and left thinking WTF check the lineup….

I wouldn't have thought the footage of his debut win would exist but they managed to get the head-on of it.

As David Ashforth used to like to point out in his old RP columns, before the widespread coverage came about or the terrestial only coverage before it, if you weren't there in person, that was it, never to be seen again by anyone.

Is that the show where they said a dirt clump hit him in the eye or
face when he got beat in America?

Yes, Guy Harwood explains from just after 23 minutes in.

The documentary is largely in chronological order but they put that in before the build up to the Arc success, best not to end on a downer, I suppose.

Distinctly remember reading that Bering finished on three legs in the Arc after going lame inside final furlong , anyone find a narrative or interview to substantiate that  ?

Bering ran all the way to the line.The Brave too good for him.

The French are adamant that Bering would have beaten Dancing Brave but for the injury he sustained in the Atc.

As an aside, i included Dancing Brave in a double, a 5 grand double to cover the tax, in the race he was returned "no offers"...lol...think it was his prep race for the Arc at Goodwood? Select Stakes?

It was the Select Stakes at Goodwood....

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=dancing+brave+wins+select+stakes+at+goodwood&mid=A9C6544E458B3ED3F309A9C6544E458B3ED3F309&FORM=VIRE

Dancing Brave was the horse that got me into racing, i was 14 and his speed over the last furlongs was just crazy. And possibly Jenny Pitman.

Then my parents took me to salisbury in 1987 and I saw Warning and Undercut in one afternoon.

Fantastic stuff thanks George.
My favourite horse by a country mile. Danced every dance.

forgive me for being daft. When did Starkey lose the ride then? I had thought it was after Epsom? Or did he just ride it for this trial after Ascot?

DonegalP...Starkey rode it in the Eclipse but lost the ride after that. I seem to recall a bad back was part of the reason but I think we all took that with a pinch of salt at the time!

But it was a good jockey change because I do not think Starkey, and he was still a very good rider, could have rode the horse so cooly and brilliantly as Eddery did in the Arc.

In 52 years of backing horses - I'm no 64 - Dancing Brave and Night Nurse remain the best two horses under the two different codes I have ever seen.

Lastly, to anyone who wants to see DB's debut win at Sandown in the Dorking Stakes, a search of Youtube will show it is there. Worth looking at to see how far back Starkey sits in the 4 runner field. He certainly knew what he had underneath that day and told Harwood when he got off 'that's my Derby horse next year'.

But what stood out from DB's two wins as a 2yo were the times he achieved. Both very quick and in age when speed figures were not that recognised, a shrewd few would have seen a star on its ascent. Great, great days!!

Seem to recall Brough Scott i think doing a piece on Dancing Brave completing the last 5 furlongs of the arc quicker than the Prix D Labbaye  albeit over a differing part of the track.

geoff m...I recall that.

But the piece never stood up to much scrutiny because when DB ran his 5f faster than the Abbaye he was already running at a good pelt. In the Abbaye they were starting from standing!

Great point Knight