Hyperion

Hyperion's size hardly suggested he would be a great racehorse.

The public loved few great racehorses as much as Hyperion. He had a great charisma of his own. The 17th Earl of Derby, his owner, bred a chestnut with four white socks and a head, which denoted intelligence. Hyperion's shortness of cannon bones proved a great advantage as it brought him near to the ground. His sire was Gainsborough, a Triple Crown winner, and his dam, Selene, was a high-class race mare winning 15 races.

Hyperion's work at home was unimpressive, he was an exceptionally lazy horse. As a 2 year olds, he had 5 races, winning 3 of them and finishing 3rd once and 4th once.

In his debut at Doncaster, in the Zetland Maiden Stakes, he finished an honourable fourth in a strong field. Following this colt runaway with the New Stakes at Ascot by 3 lengths from Nun's Veil. Here, the small chestnut had revealed his acceleration for the first time.

In his next race, Hyperion dead-heated in the Prince of Wales Stakes while he finished 3rd in the Boscawen Stakes at Newmarket in September to Manitoba, however at the end of the season, Hyperion culminated his two tear old career with a thoroughly convincing win in the Dewhurst Stakes. At the Bushes his rider Tommy Weston urged him and Hyperion quickened to win by a most convincing 2 lengths.

Hyperion made a winning debut to his 3-year-olds career in the Chester Vase. He convinced racegoers about his staying ability winning on heavy ground.

His training gallops were unimpressive but yet he started as a 6-1 favourite for the Derby. Hyperion won the Blue Riband in the manner of a true champion in a record time of 2 mins. 34 secs., by 4 lengths.

Hyperion's pacemaker, Thrapston, ridden by Steve Donoghue played a significant role in his victory. It enabled Hyperion to come up on the inside approaching Tattenham Corner and simply cruised past his rivals like a missile in the straight. Hyperion won with the authority of an emperor commanding his knights. He defeated the high class, King Salmon.

It was the greatest pre-war Epsom Derby wins and the actual winning margin was 8 lengths (officially 4 lengths). In those days, the judges did not have the modern equipment to properly judge the winning distance of the finishes). He broke the record timing for the race clocking 2:34 secs. Donoghue had done his work to perfection setting just the right pace. Hyperion was the smallest horse to win the Derby after Little Wonder in 1840, who stood less than 15 h.high.

Following this Hyperion won the Prince of Wales Stakes at Ascot. He went on to win the St.Leger at Doncaster, after making all the running, by 3 lengths from Felicitation. He won this race despite facing an injury.

Hyperion had displayed the most emphatic superiority witnessed till this day in the Leger. Video tapes of that race, remind people of the authority with which Mill Reef, Sea Bird or Nijinsky trounced their opponents. That day Hyperion was up against the Irish Derby winner Harinero and the Prix du Jockey Club winner, Thor. After his win, Hyperion received an ovation of a true prince (in those days the best middle distance horses contested the Leger).

Sadly, at the end of the season, his trainer George Lambton had to retire. This considerably affected Hyperion's career, as he understood the great horse better than a mother understood her child.

Collegde Leader his new trainer failed to understand him. He often under-estimated the work Hyperion would need. Hyperion was a very temperamental animal and had to be dealt with like a schoolboy in a nursery. Sometimes Hyperion would stay still for half an hour or more on the heath.

Hyperion made a winning debut to his 4 year-olds career in the ten furlong March Stakes at Newmarket and repeated it in the mile and a half Burwell Stakes on the same track. After this, he was exercised on a morning gallop where he became so fatigued that he pulled up. It was alarming news to his fans.

His next race was the 4,000 meters of the Ascot Gold Cup where the Aga Khan's Felicitation (whom he had thrashed in the St.Leger) beat him by 9 1/2 lengths after making the entire running. Trainer Frank Butters rated Felicitation the best stayer he had ever trained.

His career ended tragically in the 12 furlongs of the Dullingham Stakes, where he was beaten a short head by 3yo Caithness.

Hyperion was simply not the horse he was under Lambton and his defeat was a sad sight for racegoers. They resembled the disappointment of boxing fans when Muhammad Ali was defeated. The change of trainers had adversely affected him.

Hyperion has been given a rating of 142, only behind Brigadier Gerard amongst British Racehorses of the Century and Sea Bird and Ribot amongst European racehorses (in World Rakings he is rated 6th).

Thus officially he has been rated above greats like Mill Reef, Nijinsky and Dancing Brave. His 3-year-old rating is the highest ever awarded to a British Racehorse in the Century. However, I disagree with this.

Hyperion displayed remarkable natural ability but his overall performances were not equal to Mill Reef, Nijinsky, Dancing Brave or even Bayardo (1909 champion), even if his talent matched or was superior to that of the horses mentioned. On the day of the Epsom Derby and Leger, he simply devoured his rivals like all the superstars, but his consistency did not equal that of those champions. In my view, those horses were tested to a truer extent.

At stud Hyperion was a true superstar. He dominated the stud scene like an emperor building a huge empire that lasted for generations. He was champion six times (1940, 1941, 1942, 1945, 1946, 1955), a record surpassed only by St. Simon, Stockwell and Hermit.

He was twice leading sire of broodmares (1948, 1957). He sired 118 stakes winners including eight classic winners Owen Tudor (1941 Derby, and 1942 Ascot Gold Cup), Godiva (1940 1,000 Guineas and Oaks), Sun Chariot (1942 1,000 Guineas, Oaks, and St. Leger for King George VI), Hycilla (1944 Oaks and Champion Stakes), Sunstream (1945 1,000 Guineas and Oaks), Sun Castle (1941 St. Leger), Hypericum (1946 1,000 Guineas), and in America, Pensive (1944 Kentucky Derby and Preakness).

Among Hyperion's other outstanding runners were Opaline II, Gulf Stream, Eastern Emperor, Heliopolis, Double Eclipse, High Hat, Hornbeam, High Stakes, Hyperbole, Saturn, and Khaled. His outstanding sons at stud were legion, and included Aureole (won the Coronation Cup and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes), Heliopolis, Gulf Stream, Helios, Ruthless, Deimos, Aristophanes, Selim Hassan, all leading sires at least once; as well as Owen Tudor, Alibhai, Stardust (sire of Star Kingdom), Rockefella, High Hat, and numerous others.

Hyperion's blood can be traced to superstars like Nijinsky (Lady Angela) and Mill Reef (Red Ray). Thus, he could be called the "pre-war racehorse of the century" as far as the stud record was concerned.

His sons have been champions all over the world. Even a Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Ribot or Sea Bird could not match this. Only Northern Dancer overshadowed Hyperion after the war (Sadler's Wells, the greatest sire of recent years is a descendant of the Northern Dancer line).

Hyperion died at the age of 30. On that occasion his owner and his friends drank to his memory from a bottle originally opened in honour of Sir Winston Churchill.

Appropriately, Lord Derby called them "The Two greatest grand old Men of our time."

Hyperion 1930	Gainsborough	Bayardo	Bay Ronald
			Galicia
		Rosedrop	St.Frusquin
			Rosaline
	Selene	Chaucer	St.Simon
			Canterbury Pilgrim
		Serenissima	Minoru
			Gondolette