‘Timeform Racehorses of 1949’ described Abernant as ‘without question the fastest horse in training’. Indeed, the grey son of 1841 Derby winner Owen Tudor was one of the few horses to be rated the best of his generation by Timeform at two, three and four years and his Timeform Annual Rating of 142 remains the joint-fifth highest in the history of the respected ratings organisation.

Bred and owned by Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Macdonald-Buchanan and trained by Noel Murless, Abernant tasted defeat just three times in his 17-race career. He was beaten, through inexperience, on his two-year-old debut in 1948, through lack of stamina, hardly bolstered by his free-going style of racing, in the 2,000 Guineas in 1949, and famously suffered a shock defeat by the year-younger Tangle, who was receiving 23lb, in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1950.

The winner of five races as a juvenile, including the Middle Park Stakes, over 6 furlongs at Newmarket, Abernant was considered ‘not certain’ to stay the one-mile distance of the 2,000 Guineas, but was nonetheless sent off the heavily backed favourite for the Newmarket Classic. After a thrilling duel on the Rowley Mile, Abernant was just outpointed by the 10/1 chance Nimbus, who won by a short head.

After the second defeat of his career, Abernant was raced exclusively at sprint distances and proved to be something of a revelation. In 1949, he won the King’s Stand Stakes, July Cup, Nunthorpe Stakes and King George Stakes and, notwithstanding his reverse in the King’s Stand Stakes the following year, won the latter three races again in 1950. By modern standards, the one race missing from his résumé is the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, but that contest was not inaugurated until 1957, so at the time of his retirement in 1950 there was, as Murless put it, ‘nothing left for him to win’.

Featuring Abernant and others.

Bred by Federico Tesla, whom racing historian John Randall called ‘the greatest single figure in the history of Italian racing’, Ribot was one of the finest European racehorses of the twentieth century. Unbeaten in all 16 starts between 1954 and 1956, over distances ranging from 1,000 metres to 3,000 metres or, in imperial units, from 5 furlongs to 15 furlongs, approximately, Ribot was awarded a Timeform rating of 142 as a four-year-old in 1956. At the time, he was ranked behind only Tudor Minstrel and, even today, is ranked behind only Frankel, Sea-Bird, Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel in the all-time list, according to Timeform.

Trained by Ugo Penco in Italy, where he became known as ‘Il Cavallo Super’, recorded several notable victories at San Siro Racecourse in Milan. In 1954, he won the top two-year-old race in Italy, the Gran Criterium, in 1955, the Gran Premio del Jockey Club and, in 1956, the Gran Premio di Milano. However, to the international horse racing community, Ribot is best remembered for back-to-back victories in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1955 and 1956. Of his second victory in the Longchamp, Timeform ‘Racehorses of 1956’ reported, ‘What can be said without fear of contradiction is that after his triumph in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Ribot is entitled to a place among the great horses of history.’

Earlier in 1956, Ribot made his one and only appearance on a British racecourse when lining up for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes – at the time, the most valuable race in the country – at Ascot. Sent off at odds of 2/5 to record his fourteenth consecutive victory, Ribot easily justified favouritism, sprinting clear in the closing stages to beat High Veldt, owned by the Queen, by five lengths.

Ribot – 1956 King George