Greatest Racehorses: Reference Point 4l6d3a

Pedigree Details

Sire: Mill Reef

Dam: Home On The Range

Dam's Sire: Habitat

Breeder: Louis Freedman

Foaled: 26 February 1984

Race Record & Factfile

Races: 10

Wins: 7

Owner: Mr Louis Freedman

Trainer: Henry Cecil

Profile

Shirley Heights. Reference Point’s dam Home On The Range was a very smart filly (Timeform rating of 124) and gained her most important win in the Sun Chariot Stakes, then run over a mile and a quarter, but she also won the Warwick Oaks at a mile and a half and was a close fourth in the Yorkshire Oaks.

Until Frankel came along at the end of his long and hugely successful training career, Reference Point was the highest-rated horse Henry Cecil had trained and was the best of his four colts to win the Derby. Right from his two-year-old days, Reference Point had looked a strong-galloping staying type ideally suited by making the running. Enterprising tactics were essential for him, in fact, and he couldn’t have had a better jockey for carrying them out than Steve Cauthen who, since coming from America and then becoming Cecil’s stable jockey, had earned a reputation for his skill at setting the pace and waiting in front.

"Cauthen’s judgment of pace played a key role in Reference Point’s successes", said Racehorses of 1987. "The genuine Reference Point seldom gave him an armchair ride though, giving the impression on occasions that he was rather a phlegmatic individual – he never turned a hair in the preliminaries – whose inclination was to do no more than necessary in his races; quite a bit of riding was sometimes required to get him fully stretched out."

Two-year-old season (1986)

After finishing third when hot favourite for his debut at Sandown, Reference Point won his last two starts as a two-year-old, earning a rating of 132 which made him Timeform’s top-rated juvenile, 2 lb clear of the Dewhurst winner Ajdal. Returned to Sandown for his second start in the Dorking Stakes, on firm ground he lowered the course record for two-year-olds in winning by eight lengths, and then headed to Doncaster for the William Hill Futurity at the end of October. He was impressive again, this time on softer ground, becoming the first to make all the running in the race, and won more easily than the official margin of five lengths. Timeform credited him with a seven-length victory over the Royal Lodge Stakes winner Bengal Fire who got to within a couple of lengths of Reference Point two furlongs out before he strode clear.

Reference Point looked sure to be suited by middle distances at three and already looked the one they all had to beat at Epsom, his essay in Racehorses of 1986 concluding "his second season should be something to savour". While his owner had triple crown ambitions – the best horses to have carried his colours previously had all been fillies – Timeform’s view was that Reference Point wouldn’t have the speed to cope with specialist milers in the 2000 Guineas.

Major races won

• William Hill Futurity Stakes, Doncaster

Three-year-old season (1987)

Any chance of Reference Point attempting the triple crown was soon ruled out early in his three-year-old season when he needed an operation in March to clear a sinus infection. It meant a delayed reappearance in the Dante Stakes at York where his trainer judged him to be only 80 per cent fit. He made all the running to win by a length from Ascot Knight, a highly-regarded maiden from the Michael Stoute stable, and, while some felt that he hadn’t handled the home turn at York like a potential Derby winner, his odds for Epsom were cut from around 4/1 so that he started at 6/4 on Derby Day.

It had been over ten years since the leading two-year-old had gone on to win the Derby (Grundy in 1975), though at the time the 19-runner field for the 1987 renewal didn’t look a vintage line-up. Two unbeaten colts were next in the betting, Sadjiyd from and Reference Point’s stablemate Legal Bid, winner of the Lingfield Derby Trial. Cauthen picked the right colt of the Cecil pair and he took the race by the scruff of the neck right from the start, just as he did when successful on Slip Anchor for the same stable two years earlier. Most Welcome, who had been disqualified after finishing third past the post in the 2000 Guineas, proved Reference Point’s biggest danger in the last two furlongs but Reference Point stayed on under pressure and pulled away again to win by a length and a half with the Guineas runner-up Bellotto finishing strongly for third after meeting interference.

The firm ground and fierce pace helped Reference Point go close to breaking Mahmoud’s record time for the race which had stood since 1936. However, his timefigure wasn’t outstanding for a Derby winner and, while Cauthen wasn’t prepared to say how Reference Point measured up to Slip Anchor who had won the Derby by seven lengths, he did indicate that the more balanced Slip Anchor had handled the gradients of Epsom better and predicted that Reference Point would be better suited to a more galloping track. Cauthen was proved right about that, but not straight away.

Reference Point was beaten on his next start, but that was back at a mile and a quarter in the Eclipse, becoming the first Derby winner since his own sire to tackle the race. He set a blistering pace and after a tremendous duel over the last two furlongs with the top-class four-year-old Mtoto, Reference Point went down gamely by three quarters of a length. Cecil felt that he didn’t have him at his best at Sandown as he was very lazy at home and had taken a while to recover from his exertions at Epsom.

Reference Point came out of the Eclipse much better and was ready to take on a top-class field in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot later in July. The unseasonably soft ground meant that Mtoto wasn’t in the line-up, but the French mare Triptych, who had been third to Dancing Brave the year before, took him on again having also finished third in the Eclipse. Celestial Storm also headed the older-horse challenge, runner-up to Triptych in the previous season’s Champion Stakes and impressive on his return in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes. The previous season’s St Leger winner Moon Madness, Italy’s Tony Bin and ’s Acatenango were the other older horses, while the other three-year-olds included the Irish Derby winner Sir Harry Lewis who had finished fourth behind Reference Point at Epsom.

"Stamina, courage and determination, all displayed in abundance, carried the day for Reference Point in the King George", said Racehorses. "It was an exhilarating exhibition of front-running, one of the sights of the European season, and, except that Celestial Storm would have been a little closer with a clear run, the result was a true reflection on the day of the relative merits of Reference Point and his closest pursuers. Reference Point annihilated them! His performance at Ascot sured anything he achieved before or afterwards."

Reference Point set a relentless gallop throughout and looked the winner from the moment Cauthen sent him clear rounding the home turn with nearly all those behind him already under strong pressure by then. Celestial Storm, who met his interference early in the straight, took second three lengths behind the winner and a neck ahead of Triptych who was herself five lengths clear of Moon Madness, Tony Bin, Acatenango and Sir Harry Lewis in a close group. It was an exhausting race for all concerned, Reference Point himself edging off a true line and all out at the finish. Emulating his sire who also completed the Derby-King George double, Reference Point recorded the season’s best timefigure.

Reference Point proceeded to win his next two races which were both back against his own age group. The Great Voltigeur Stakes at York was little more than a public training spin as he outclassed his only two rivals at odds of 14/1-on. The St Leger proved to be not a great deal more competitive, with Reference Point 11/4-on to for six rivals. Nijinsky had been the last Derby/King George winner to win the St Leger as well, while only Shergar had attempted the same treble since the 1970 triple crown winner. Bowling along in front as usual, Reference Point had most of his rivals struggling to keep up some way from home and he stretched out in good style once shown the whip for a decisive length-and-a-half victory over Mountain Kingdom who had been sixth in the Derby. Incidentally, no Derby winner since Reference Point has won the St Leger, Camelot failing in his triple crown bid in 2011.

That just leaves Reference Point’s final race, which brought an anti-climactic end to his racing career. He started odds-on for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, an even shorter price than Dancing Brave who had been such a brilliant winner the year before. He made the running as usual but began to labour from some way out and was left for dead in the home straight before finishing a well-beaten eighth of 11 over 20 lengths behind the French three-year-old Trempolino, a 20/1-chance who had finished second in the Prix du Jockey Club. Reference Point showed signs of lameness afterwards (the ground was firm, resulting in the track record being broken) but fears that he might have sustained a hairline fracture were dispelled, investigations revealing an abscess.

Major races won

• Dante Stakes, York
• Derby, Epsom
• King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Ascot
• Great Voltigeur Stakes, York
• St Leger, Doncaster

Reference Point at stud

Reference Point began his short-lived stud career at Sheikh Mohammed’s Dalham Hall Stud at Newmarket in 1988 at a fee of £70,000, though his owner’s Cliveden Stud retained a majority share in him. He proved a disappointing stallion, though did sire the Oaks d’Italia winner Ivyanna among only a few smart performers. He had sired four crops before having to be put down at the age of just seven after breaking a leg in a paddock accident.

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