Ka Ying Rising’s remarkable winning streak came to an end in the Everest at Randwick on Saturday, as Tempted gained revenge for her defeat 12 months ago. The world’s highest-rated racehorse had won 21 races in a row and had not been beaten since January 2024, but a wide draw in barrier 11 left him without cover, and he could not quite reel in Ciaron Maher’s filly, going down by half a neck.
Trainer David Hayes was quick to blame the draw, and the Hong Kong superstar will bid to bounce back at Sha Tin later this year. He is far from the first champion to see his winning run come to an end, though. We have looked back at ten of the great unbeaten runs and winning sequences on the Flat and over jumps, and how they finally came to a halt.
Brigadier Gerard
- Trainer: Dick Hern
- Usual jockey: Joe Mercer
- Unbeaten run: 15 races, from his debut in 1970
- Defeated: second to Roberto in the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup at York, August 1972
- Career record: 17 wins from 18 starts
For a certain vintage of racing fan, Brigadier Gerard’s defeat to Roberto in the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup would have been like Frankel losing to Camelot. Dick Hern’s incomparable horse won his first 15 races, defeating Mill Reef and My Swallow in a memorable and historic 2000 Guineas. Among those 15 starts came nine top level prizes and he had recently stepped up to 1m4f successfully to win the 1972 King George at Ascot. Perhaps exertions in that race told as Roberto’s hot tempo drew Brigadier Gerard out of his comfort zone and he could not bridge the gap. Rheingold, who was beaten in the Derby by Roberto and was distantly beaten in this race, went on to win the Arc the following year. This is the purest example of how tenuous an unbeaten record can be.
Baaeed
- Trainer: William Haggas
- Usual jockey: Jim Crowley
- Unbeaten run: 10 races, from his debut at Leicester in June 2021
- Defeated: fourth at 1/4 in the Champion Stakes at Ascot, October 2022
- Career record: 10 wins from 11 starts
Ombudsman’s victory in the Champion Stakes drew debates as to whether he is the best performer since Frankel. However, those debates may well have been pointless were Baaeed to have won the same race four years previously. The Shadwell star had completed a perfect ten with a blistering victory in York’s Juddmonte International Stakes that August, ensuring he had won four Group 1s that season with consummate ease. For whatever reason though, Ascot’s tacky autumnal ground got to the son of Sea The Stars, as his usually inexorable turn-of-foot was not delivered. He trailed in fourth behind Bay Bridge, a talented horse but one far below his level.
Camelot
- Trainer: Aidan O’Brien
- Usual jockey: Joseph O’Brien
- Unbeaten run: five races, from his debut at Leopardstown in July 2011, including the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and Irish Derby
- Defeated: second at 2/5 to Encke in the St Leger at Doncaster, September 2012, denying him the Triple Crown
- Career record: six wins from 10 starts
Camelot was five from five in his career as he strode onto Town Moor in September 2012. He was also 2/5 to complete what appeared a procession into the history books. No colt had completed the Triple Crown since Nijinsky in 1970. 42 years on, Aidan O’Brien’s imposing three-year-old looked destiny in the face, but was cruelly denied its embrace. Instead, Joseph O’Brien rode him overly confidently and Godolphin’s Encke, trained by Mahmood Al Zarooni, got first run and was too far clear. Al Zarooni was subsequently banned for doping offences, with Encke one of the horses implicated. Camelot won just one more race when kept in training at four.
Enable
- Trainer: John Gosden
- Usual jockey: Frankie Dettori
- Unbeaten run: 12 races, from the Cheshire Oaks in May 2017, including two Arcs and the Breeders’ Cup Turf
- Defeated: second at 4/6 to Waldgeist in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, October 2019
- Career record: 15 wins from 19 starts
Another horse for whom history beckoned was Enable. It remains the case that no horse, male or female, has won three PrIx de l’Arc de Triomphes, whether consecutively or otherwise. Yet the Gosden mare had been unbeatable for more than two years, winning 11 races on the spin, including the 2017 and 2018 Arcs as well as two King Georges. She had gamely defeated Crystal Ocean for the second of those King George triumphs, but closing to the line in third was Waldgeist. The French horse, a soft ground specialist, duly turned the tables with a late surge at Longchamp. Enable’s chance of history was gone even if she did win a third King George the following year: she was only sixth in the 2020 Arc.
Zenyatta
- Trainer: John Shirreffs
- Usual jockey: Mike Smith
- Unbeaten run: 19 races, from her debut in November 2007
- Defeated: beaten a head by Blame in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs, November 2010
- Career record: 19 wins from 20 starts
Zenyatta was about to retire in pomp and ceremony at no less a meeting than the Breeders’ Cup. The American favourite had enjoyed a scarcely believable run of 19 straight successes and looked set to end her career 20 unbeaten. Narrow victories throughout 2010 did suggest her star was waning though and punters latched on. She went off odds against at 11/8 to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic and finally found a horse too good. She dramatically missed the start by many lengths, yet was closing strongly on Blame all the way to the line, going down by just a head. To many, she remained morally undefeated, but her record cannot show that.
Golden Sixty
- Trainer: Francis Lui
- Usual jockey: Vincent Ho
- Unbeaten run: 16 races, from September 2019 to December 2021, one short of the Hong Kong record
- Defeated: second to Waikuku in the Stewards’ Cup at Sha Tin, January 2022
- Career record: 26 wins from 31 starts
Before Ka Ying Rising, there was Golden Sixty. In similar fashion, he had met with defeat early in his career before starting his dynasty. Between September 2019 and December 2021, he won 16 straight between 6f-1m2f, the majority coming over 1m. There had been some close calls, including a short head win in the 1m2f Hong Kong Gold Cup in 2021, but the bookmakers had had enough of his winning, and priced him at the most prohibitive odds ever seen in a Group/Grade 1: he was 1/100 to win the 2022 Stewards’ Cup. As such, his defeat at the hands of Waikuku sent shockwaves through the racing world.
Altior
- Trainer: Nicky Henderson
- Usual jockey: Nico de Boinville
- Unbeaten run: 19 races over hurdles and fences, including two Queen Mother Champion Chases
- Defeated: second at 1/3 to Cyrname in the Christy 1965 Chase at Ascot, November 2019
- Career record: 21 wins from 26 starts
Unbeaten runs over obstacles are rarer, primarily due to the hurdles and fences themselves. Nevertheless, Altior, being the brilliant jumper he was, racked up an extraordinary succession of scalps and trophies. He won 19 straight races over obstacles, from his hurdling debut to his 2019 Celebration Chase victory. Then along came Cyrname. In what was effectively a match (50/1 outsider of three Solomon Grey was rated a long way below the pair) in the 1965 Chase at Ascot in 2019, the season opener for both horses, Cyrname was too nimble for Altior as the Henderson horse stepped up in trip. At his happy hunting ground of Ascot, Cyrname and Harry Cobden bullied affairs from the front to prevent win no.20.
Big Buck’s
- Trainer: Paul Nicholls
- Usual jockey: Ruby Walsh
- Unbeaten run: 18 races over hurdles, a jumps record at the time, including four Stayers’ Hurdles
- Defeated: third at 6/5 behind Knockara Beau in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham, January 2014, on his return from injury
- Career record: 21 wins from 27 starts for Paul Nicholls
Despite being a big horse, Big Buck’s kept finding fences to be immovable objects. Over hurdles though, he was the unstoppable force for many seasons. 18 contests in a row went his way across four seasons, including four straight Stayers’ Hurdles at Cheltenham. He sustained an injury just before his tenth birthday though, which caused an absence of 420 days between December 2012 and January 2014. When he returned, aged 11, he was odds against for the first time in nearly five years. Despite jumping the last in the 2014 Cleeve Hurdle in front, race fitness, plus time’s unsympathetic hand, caused him to falter, as 66/1 shot Knockara Beau caused an almighty upset.
Honeysuckle
- Trainer: Henry de Bromhead
- Usual jockey: Rachael Blackmore
- Unbeaten run: 16 races under rules, from her debut at Fairyhouse in November 2018, including two Champion Hurdles
- Defeated: third at 4/11 behind Teahupoo in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse, December 2022
- Career record: 17 wins from 19 starts
Rachael Blackmore and Honeysuckle was a match made in racing heaven. Henry De Bromhead’s mare had pluck in abundance, winning her first 16 rules starts, a run including two Champion Hurdles, two more of the Punchestown equivalent, and a Cheltenham Mares’ Hurdle to boot. She and Blackmore seemed unstoppable. She had also won three straight Hatton’s Grace Hurdles at Fairyhouse over 2m4f and lined up for four in a row in 2022. But there was a new kid on the block who has since proven how much he revels in that particular race, and on soft ground. That newcomer was Teahupoo, who got the better of Klassical Dream, another top-notcher, as Honeysuckle could finish only third.
Douvan
- Trainer: Willie Mullins
- Usual jockey: Ruby Walsh
- Unbeaten run: 14 races, including the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the Arkle
- Defeated: seventh at 2/9 behind Special Tiara in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, March 2017
- Career record: 14 wins from 19 starts
One of racing’s great “what if” horses of modern times is also an answer to some Cheltenham trivia: who is the shortest-priced loser in Cheltenham Festival history? In his retirement home, Douvan will have quite enjoyed seeing El Fabiolo fluff his lines in the 2024 Champion Chase, much as he did in 2017, as he is no longer the lone answer to that question. Both were vanquished at odds of 2/9, with Douvan going into his Champion Chase unbeaten in 14. Something was amiss though, as the seven-year-old ran flatter than the proverbial pancake. He finished only seventh, as Special Tiara won the race at 11/1.