As the Post hits 34, we look back on some of the big headline-grabbing stories

Published in the Racing Post on April 12, 2016 – during the week the publication celebrated its 30th year in print. The very first edition of the paper was published on Tuesday, April 15, 1986

June 4, 1986: Dancing Brave’s Derby defeat

Dancing Brave was one of the greats of the modern era but his shining record will always be a little tarnished by his failure in the Derby. The unbeaten 2,000 Guineas winner – declared to be 'bombproof' by his jockey Greville Starkey, thus opening the door to all forms of hubris – was expected to win easily at Epsom, but was undone by a patient ride and which led to a loss of track position, resulting in his having an impossible amount of ground to make up. He charged down the straight like a sprinter under a frantic Starkey but failed by half a length to catch Shahrastani. The colt's subsequent exploits, notably his breathtaking Arc success under Pat Eddery, served to make the Derby an even bigger case of 'what might have been'.

October 23, 1987: prison for Piggott

The reverberations were felt well beyond the world of racing when Lester Piggott, arguably the greatest Flat jockey of them all, was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion. He was jailed at Ipswich Crown Court for failing to declare income of £3.25 million to the Inland Revenue, and at the time it was the longest sentence passed down for personal tax fraud. Piggott's legendary and endearing parsimony was part of his character, but away from the one-liners he had more than 20 bank accounts in tax havens, one or two of which were reportedly unknown to his accountants. He was stripped of his OBE and eventually served a year and a day of his sentence, much of it at Highpoint open prison in Suffolk. "It was all a complete waste of time," he said.

June 16, 1988: stunning stuff at Royal Ascot

Ile De Chypre didn't win the 1988 King George V Handicap but no-one will ever forget how he lost it. Entering the final furlong the three-year-old was a couple of lengths clear and victory seemed assured, but in the last 100 yards he jinked violently left, giving Greville Starkey no chance of staying aboard, the race lost. The event was assigned no more than novelty value until a year later, when during a trial at Southwark crown court the defendant claimed he had caused Ile De Chypre to swerve by firing a 'stun-gun' (disguised as a pair of binoculars) that emitted a highfrequency burst of sound at the horse. Was Ile De Chypre 'got at' in the most public way? Nothing was proved, but the whiff of skulduggery still haunts one of racing's most enduring mysteries.

Greville Starkey: fall from Ile De Chypre was the start of a bizarre legal dramaCredit: Unknown

October 30, 1989: all-weather racing begins

A seismic and permanent change hit racing at the unusually early hour of 11am, when Niklas Angel, a 7-2 favourite trained by Conrad Allen and ridden by Richard Quinn, won the first division of the William Hill Claiming Stakes at Lingfield over a mile – the first race to be run on an artificial surface in Britain. The 12-race card on the Equitrack surface was the first flowering of a groundbreaking initiative, the brainchild of Lingfield’s former owner Ron Muddle, designed to make up for jumps fixtures lost through bad weather – hence the appellation 'all-weather' – and to increase opportunities for second-tier horses, trainers and jockeys. Nine days later Southwell staged its first all-weather meeting on a Fibresand surface, and both racecourses featured hurdle races on an artificial surface until that practice ceased in 1994.

October 27, 1990: Royal Academy, Dayjur and all the rest

The 1990 Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park was wrought with almost every human emotion. Shock, as the brilliantly fast Dayjur jumped two shadows in the closing strides and lost the Sprint by a neck. Horror, when the adored Go For Wand broke a leg in the Distaff stretch and couldn’t be saved. Disbelief, then understanding, then joy, as 54-year-old Lester Piggott – who had returned to the saddle just 12 days earlier after five years away, including a year in prison – coaxed Royal Academy to a thrilling victory in the Mile, one of the greatest comebacks of any sporting life and the perfect antidote to a day that seemed to be going badly wrong. "It was unbelievable – it meant so much to everybody," said Piggott. There may never have been a raceday quite like it.

November 2, 1991: Arazi the astonishing

Arazi was not quite a wonderhorse, not nearly the greatest ever, but in the space of a short and breathless minute at Churchill Downs he produced one of the most extraordinary performances ever seen on a racecourse. No European horse had even managed a place on the dirt at the Breeders' Cup, and when the little French colt trailed the field at halfway in the Juvenile that stat looked unlikely to change. And then Arazi began to run. Pat Valenzuela steered him through the field like a motorcycle despatch rider in rush hour, inside, outside, through the lot, a mesmerising passage, and when he reached the stretch turn Arazi simply ran right by the leader Bertrando, ran away like a loose horse all the way to immortality. "Here indeed is a superstar! Absolutely sensational!" said racecaller Tom Durkin. Words were barely adequate.

July 26, 1992: the start of Sunday racing

A Jockey Club committee aimed at establishing Sunday racing in Britain was formed in the mid-1980s. The aspiration to stage fixtures on the weekend's second day featured in numerous pieces of legislation but, hampered by both the Sunday Observance Act and the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act, those attempts continually failed to win over the House of Commons. This prompted supporters to make a radical move, and Britain's first Sunday raceday took place at Doncaster where Savoyard, trained by Michael Jarvis and ridden by Walter Swinburn, made history by winning the opening contest, the seven-furlong Coral 1st Sunday Limited Handicap. The move's popularity was underlined by an attendance of more than 23,000 but, as betting on a Sunday remained illegal, no odds were returned. It took almost three years to pass legislation to allow on-course bookmakers to trade on Sundays.

April 3, 1993: the race that never was

The biggest race in the world, the biggest embarrassment in sport. In front of a worldwide audience of 300 million, with £75 million in bets riding on the result, racing made itself look stupid, turning the sport into a laughing stock and leaving a blank space in the Grand National record books. The antiquated starting gate began the collapse, the failure of the false-start system compounded the situation, and the hapless Aintree starter Keith Brown was soon christened 'Captain Cock-Up' as utter chaos ensued. A few horses obeyed the order to stop, half the field went round for a circuit before pulling up, and seven horses completed the 'race'. Esha Ness and jockey John White led them home, the headline victims of a calamity that brought ignominy – and belated modernity – to racing.

September 30, 1994: murder in Newmarket

In six years with a licence, Alex Scott had emerged as one of the most promising trainers in the business, with a Breeders' Cup victory (Sheikh Albadou) and Irish Oaks success (Possessive Dancer) under his belt and a bright future ahead. In August, he had sent out a two-year-old colt named Lammtarra to win on his debut, but weeks later he was murdered at his Newmarket stud farm by William 'Clem' O'Brien, a disaffected employee who shot Scott at close range with a shotgun following the last in a series of arguments about working practices, which had prompted Scott to dismiss the stud groom. O'Brien was sentenced to life imprisonment for his actions. Lammtarra went on to win the Derby the following year. Scott left a widow, Julia, and three children. He was 34.

October 3, 1995: Sheikh Mohammed and Henry Cecil split

All good things must come to an end, but the disconnection of two of the biggest names in Flat racing was sensational stuff. The long association between Henry Cecil and Sheikh Mohammed had brought Classic success through Oh So Sharp, Old Vic, Indian Skimmer and Diminuendo, as well as big-race glory with Belmez and King's Theatre, but behind the scenes tension had evidently built and the catalyst for Sheikh Mohammed's decision was the two-year-old colt Mark Of Esteem. Cecil wanted to run the subsequent 2,000 Guineas winner in the Royal Lodge Stakes but the owner believed the colt to be lame, and there were also rumours that he was displeased by Cecil's second wife Natalie's role in the training operation. Sheikh Mohammed said: "When trust goes, everything goes." The horses would go.

More RP Classics:

Barry Hills: never bet odds-on, never go each-way and don't be scared of a price

Big Mac: I was sacked after 29 years without a single word. Now I'm an outsider

How revolutionary trainer Martin Pipe changed the racing landscape forever

'The stewards were after me big time. They were trying to get me warned off' – the Easterbys

Steve Cauthen: Brough Scott recalls how the top US rider took Britain by storm

Keep up to date on the must-have news, tips, photos and more by following the Racing Post across all social channels