Bred and owned by American philanthropist Paul Mellon, with whose famous black-and-yellow silks he became synonymous, Mill Reef was one of the best middle-distance performers in the second half of the twentieth century. Hailed by his trainer, Ian Balding, as ‘the best horse that I have ever seen’, his Timeform annual rating of 141 remains the seventh highest since ratings first appeared in ‘Racehorses of 1947’.
Foaled on February 23, 1968, at Rokeby Stables, Virginia and named after the exclusive Mill Reef Club on Antigua, of which Mellon was an early member, Mill Reef won five of his six starts as a juvenile, including the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot by eight lengths and the Gimcrack Stakes at York by ten. The sole defeat of his two-year-old campaign came, by just a short head, at the hands of My Swallow, who remained undefeated in seven races as a juvenile, in the Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Lafitte.
The following season, Mill Reef started 6/4 favourite for a vintage renewal of the 2,000 Guineas, which also featured My Swallow and Brigadier Gerard, but was comprehensively beaten by the latter. However, stepped up in distance, Mill Reef went on to win the Derby, Eclipse Stakes, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Mill Reef won both starts as a four-year-old, the Prix Ganay at Longchamp and Coronation Cup at Epsom, but subsequently suffered a career-ending complex fracture of his left foreleg during a routine piece of work on the gallops at Kingsclere. A lengthy, painstaking operation was required to repair the shattered bone and although Mill Reef was successfully nursed back to health he was retired to the National Stud in Newmarket.