Although rated just 138 or, in other words, 9lb inferior to the highest-rated horse since 1947, Frankel, according to Timeform, Nijinsky was hailed by legendary jockey Lester Piggott as one of two best horses he ever rode. Piggott first rode Nijinsky on the fifth and final start of his unbeaten two-year-old campaign, when comfortably winning the Group One Dewhurst Stakes, over 7 furlongs, on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket. The following season, Njinsky would make history by becoming the first horse since Bahram, in 1935, to win the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St. Leger, thereby completing the elusive ‘Triple Crown’.
Owned by American mining magnate Charles Engelhard Jr., a.k.a. ‘The Platinum King’, and trained by Vincent O’Brien at Ballydoyle, Co. Tipperary, Nijinsky won the Listed Gladness Stakes, over 7 furlongs, at the Curragh under Liam Ward before heading to Newmarket, where he was reunited with Lester Piggott. Sent off at odds of 4/7, he made short work of Gimcrack Stakes-winner Yellow God and twelve other rivals, winning by two-and-a-half lengths with being fully extended.
In the Derby at Epsom, Nijinsky was sent off at 11/8 favourite – the first time in eight outings that he started odds-against – but beat the French pair, Gyr and Stintino, by two-and-a-half lengths and three lengths, with the greatest of ease. Piggott said afterwards, ‘We were always cantering, a grand ride, a grand horse.’ Further victories, in the Irish Derby at the Curragh , under Ward, and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, under Piggott, followed en route to the St. Leger.
Despite a severe case of ringworm, contracted during mid-summer, Nijinsky recovered sufficiently to take his place at Doncaster in September and, in fact, was sent off at prohibitive odds of 2/7 to win the fifth and final Classic of the season. He did so comfortably, albeit not by a wide margin, and his place in history was assured.