Farewell to an icon ~ Desert Orchid
 

Another sad day for racing.....

Jump in peace, Dessie.....
http://www.racingpost.co.uk/news/mas...esert%20Orchid

http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/n...NG_Orchid.html

http://www.famousracehorses.co.uk/de...sertorchid.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4mObGZmptA

unreal horse who REALLY captured the public's imagination. All over the mainstream papers and 12pages dedicated to him in the RacingPost. He was a national treasure and such a good horse!

This is the horse that first captured my attention as a five or six year old kid. You can use all the superlatives you like about Dessie, but, put simply he was a true great, along with Red Rum the most popular British horse of all time, and very certainly one of the best. He gained the iconic status that Flat horses never manage to accrue, and was taken to the publics' heart. His colour helped, obviously, but his courage, flamboyance, style and brilliance were also crucial.
One in a million and he will be very sadly missed.


To try and guage just how popular he is in Britain, just take a look at the front page of today's Daily Mirror.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/front/

This race was voted the greatest of all time last year.

Dessie's Gold Cup in 1989. Legendary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4mObGZmptA


Cheltenham wasn;t the ideal track for him, and the conditions were hock-deep, the racing on the verge of being abandoned. The mud-loving Yahoo revelled in them, but Dessie's never-say-die attitude is something which, combined with Peter O'Sullevan's commentary ("He's beginning to get up...there's a tremendous cheer from the crowd") makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and, today, brings a tear to the eye.

RIP Dessie. Now you and Red Rum can trade 'war stories' about being a celebrity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/othe...ng/6143678.stm
thought this was a nice tribute