Guy Harwood: 'I was shaking. I wouldn't have liked it to go wrong a second time'

In a sun-kissed garden, the drooping branches of a weeping willow move ever so gently in the warm breeze, while a lawn tennis court stands empty but inviting. Inside a house that dates back to 1860, a man looking forward to a lunchtime round of golf calls his wife "darling" and sits by a table on which a plate of buttery shortbread biscuits provides a tempting morning treat.

The scene could scarcely be more British. It also provides the most perfect setting from which to savour stories of a fabled sporting afternoon in Paris.

That October Sunday remains so celebrated and cherished that Dancing Brave's astounding triumph in the 1986 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe topped the poll in a Racing Post reader vote to determine what you consider to be the greatest horserace ever run.