Giant's Causeway: a champion who was so good, resilient and well-loved he earned his own nickname

Daylami, Montjeu, Giant's Causeway and Dubai Millennium have been shortlisted for this year's public vote for British racing's Hall of Fame, focusing on horses from the turn of the century. We've already profiled Dubai Millennium, Daylami and Montjeu, and finally it's the turn of Giant's Causeway. Cast your vote by August 25 here.

You know you have arrived when you acquire a nickname, a pithy epithet that sums up how the public know and love you.

Think of the Pocket Rocket – the speedy little Lyric Fantasy; Big Red – the mighty US Triple Crown winner Secretariat; or Himself – the incomparable chaser Arkle.

Then think of the Iron Horse, the colt so amazingly strong, so resolutely tough and so utterly dependable that he put people in mind of a locomotive powering its way through time after time.

That was Giant's Causeway, who combined top-class ability with remarkable resilience in an astonishing three-year-old campaign that lit up the 2000 season.

Something special was clearly expected after John Magnier paid $2.6 million for Mariah's Storm when the mare was carrying the unborn Giant's Causeway in 1996. The foal grew into a fine specimen. When Charlie Langton was commissioned to create a statue many years later, he said: "Giant’s Causeway is the most well-proportioned horse I’ve studied."

Handsome is as handsome does, of course. But this pin-up boy had the ability to go with his good looks.

That was clear when he bounded home by seven lengths on his debut at Naas and remained unbeaten through a two-year-old campaign culminating in the Group 1 Prix de la Salamandre at Longchamp.

Initially, he looked to have run into the buffers the following spring when he finished second in the 2,000 Guineas and its Irish equivalent, unable to match the winner's turn of foot either time, but the lesson was not lost on trainer Aidan O'Brien or jockey Mick Kinane. If they made races a test of toughness and will to win, their lion-hearted colt might be harder to beat.

Cue an unprecedented summer campaign of putting Europe's best to the sword five times in just 11 weeks.

It started in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, where Kinane rode Giant's Causeway from the front and his mount simply refused to be beaten, battling back ferociously once headed in the final furlong to lead again close home.

Giant's Causeway and George Duffield (left) battle it out with Kalanisi and Pat Eddery in the 2000 Coral-Eclipse StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

The same thing happened when he was passed late on by Kalanisi in the Coral-Eclipse upped to a mile and a quarter against his elders at Sandown 18 days later. He seemed to take affront and found extra to lead again close home.

A whole 25 days further on he repeated the trick back at a mile in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, where Dansili was firmly put in his place when he had the temerity to challenge at the furlong pole.

Old rival Kalanisi headed him again a furlong from home in the International at York a further 20 days later but nobody was surprised when Giant's Causeway forced himself back in front by the line.

The challenge came earlier in the Irish Champion Stakes 18 days on at Leopardstown, where Best Of The Bests led fully two furlongs out, yet the favourite rallied in trademark style and was soon back in front.

He had become the first horse to win five consecutive Group 1s as a three-year-old and had done it the hard way, battling rather than cruising to success each time.

Yet he thrived on his busy campaign and lost nothing in narrow defeats on his last two starts at Ascot, where Kevin Darley cannily challenged wide and late on Observatory to avoid a streetfight he was sure to lose, and Churchill Downs, where Kinane got his whip tangled in his reins for an agonising few seconds and he lost the Breeders' Cup Classic by just a neck.

Giant's Causeway returned to the US to stand at stud and passed his talent and toughness on so well that he was champion sire three times.

As Coolmore US manager Dermot Ryan said when he died at the age of 21: "He was a once-in-a-lifetime horse."

Read this next:

Dubai Millennium: the horse named to be a champion who more than lived up to it 

'The last time I was going so fast I was in a Concorde' - Hall of Fame nominees Daylami and Montjeu remembered

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