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

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'll profile all four over the coming days, kicking off with Peter Thomas on Daylami and Montjeu below. Cast your vote by August 25 here.

Daylami: The grey who just kept getting better

At the risk of sounding very old, those really were the days. They were the days when a horse who had proved himself to be useful at two, top-drawer at three and rather special at four, instead of being waved off to stud with ample justification, was openly spoken of as a creature who still had something to prove and plenty more to offer, and was sent back into the fray for a fourth season.

Perhaps his potential stud career demanded it, or perhaps it was simply a sporting gesture by a sporting owner, but Daylami, at what would certainly be regarded as the ripe old age of five, was given six more shots at greatness and rewarded the boldness of Sheikh Mohammed no fewer than four times.

At close of play, the son of Doyoun was put on a perch of 135 in the International Classifications, no fewer than 12lb higher than his four-year-old mark, and was named both European horse of the year and US turf horse of the year. If that's not vindication, I don't know what is.

Not that he really needed to prove himself to most of us. We'd have been quite happy to remember the Aga Khan-bred as a four-time winner in the green colours during his two seasons in France under the care of Alain de Royer-Dupre, with success in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains the highlight, not to mention third place in the 1997 Prix du Moulin as what we thought might be a parting shot.

Little did we know. When the switch to Godolphin happened, it was Gerald Mosse's loss and Frankie Dettori's gain. Saeed bin Suroor took over the horse's training, and as the dark grey became whiter, he also burned brighter – bright enough, in fact, to add an Eclipse and a Grade 1 Man O'War Stakes (under Jerry Bailey at Belmont Park) to his haul in his first season in Britain. 

He had been thumped by five lengths as a French raider in the St James's Palace Stakes behind Sheikh Mohammed's Starborough, but now, stepped up to ten furlongs and beyond, he was a different proposition, and the best was yet to come.

Daylami's 1999 didn't begin in a blaze of glory. He was fifth in the Dubai World Cup and then runner-up in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh, but, with the touch paper lit, he exploded into the sky, starting with a convincing defeat of warm favourite Royal Anthem in the Coronation Cup.

If Epsom was a solid piece of work, his next outing, in Ascot's King George, was a relative stroll in the park, as he outran stablemate Nedawi by an imposing five-length margin – a spectacular step up on his fourth to Swain the previous year.

Daylami and Frankie Dettori win the Breeders' Cup Turf from Royal Anthem at Gulfstream Park in November 1999Credit: Edward Whitaker

Even this, though, was as nothing compared to his trouncing of Dazzling Park and Dream Well over the ten furlongs of the Irish Champion Stakes, by nine lengths and two and a half, which set him up as a middle-distance marvel. His metier had been established, but within it there was an impressive versatility, although not quite a broad enough range to cope with the heavy ground of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in which he could manage only ninth behind Montjeu.

It was time for one last hurrah, to allow him to go out not with a damp Parisian squib but a Floridian firework, in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park.

The figures said it wasn't quite a match for his Leopardstown effort, but as a sign-off it could hardly have been bettered, in the lion's den, on foreign soil against world-class opposition, seeing off poor Royal Anthem for a third time, Dettori directing the final scene to dramatic perfection in the royal blue silks.

It was a season that could hardly have gone better, not perfect but admirable in intent and rich in reward for bold campaigning that deserved no less. This was no fleeting glory – a champion had been made in the fullness of time.

Montjeu: Greatness enhanced by quirks

It seems a little harsh in retrospect, with his racing record in front of us, that Montjeu was often held up as a flawed champion with issues of temperament that he often passed on to his offspring. It is true that his final three runs were defeats, clouded by doubts and a sneaking feeling his pomp was a thing of the past, but the black and white numbers tell us that, before the decline set in, he had won 11 of his 13 races, six of them at the highest level.

Perhaps it was telling that his first defeat in that remarkable string of success was at 1-10 in the Prix Lupin of 1999, hanging markedly behind Gracioso – a horse he would go on to thrash in the Prix du Jockey Club next time out – but the pleasure he gave us in his greatest moments was barely diminished, perhaps was even enhanced, by the quirks that inhabited his psyche.

On his day, the son of Sadler's Wells, trained in Chantilly by John Hammond, monopolised the box of superlatives. When he rounded off the summer of his three-year-old career with a five-length whipping of Daliapour in the Irish Derby, it was hard to recall a Classic being won in more dismissive fashion.

When he repeated the dose in the following year's King George at Ascot, his first appearance on British soil, there was almost an awkwardness to watching the show. It was as if the world's biggest bully was taunting his inferiors with a lack of respect that bordered on insulting. Held up in last place by Mick Kinane, he appeared aloof from proceedings before finally deigning to join in, sauntering arrogantly to the front and flicking aside no less a horse than Fantastic Light with embarrassing ease.

Of course, we shouldn't attribute such meanness to a horse, who was probably thinking nothing of the sort as he produced perhaps his career-defining moment, but the superiority was undeniable and the performance one that will never be forgotten.

Imperious: Mick Kinane checks the big screen for dangers as Montjeu waltzes off with the 2000 King George at AscotCredit: Edward Whitaker

Lest we forget, there were also days when the great horse knuckled down to get the job done, as when he broke Japanese hearts by overhauling El Condor Pasa in the Arc, in what the ratings called his finest hour. He could dig deep when he wanted to, but we'll mostly remember him for putting on a show of effortless gift.

Perhaps it was his grounding under the similarly exuberant Cash Asmussen in France that conditioned him, but when Kinane took over in the saddle in the autumn of 1999, there was no diminishment of grandstand appeal. Defeat in the Japan Cup was sandwiched between the Arc win and a spree that encompassed the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, the 1m4f King George – before which Hammond had demonstrated his belief in the horse's enduring speed by also having him entered in the Prix Jacques le Marois over a mile – and the easier meat of the Group 2 Prix Foy at 1-10.

It seemed as though the show would roll on and on, but defeat in Montjeu's bid for a second Arc was followed by a narrow beating by Kalanisi in the Champion Stakes and another, more decisive one behind the same horse in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs. None of these eclipses represented a disgrace, but they were some way short of what the mighty beast had produced in his epic days.

"I think all horses come to a point where they aren't quite as good as they once were and that's what has happened," said Hammond after the Newmarket loss, but perhaps we'd prefer to remember him in the words of Asmussen, who said following the bloodless Saint-Cloud victory: "The last time I went so fast, I was landing in a Concorde at New York."

We would never see Montjeu again on a racecourse, but this soon-to-be champion sire had enthralled and astonished us often enough to earn our undying gratitude.

Members' Club Ultimate subscribers can read more articles by Peter Thomas here:

Rossa Ryan: 'I'm not that clever so I have to be a grafter - and my biggest fear is failure' 

Robert Cooper: 'I enjoy the amusing side of life - if I were ever going to be hanged I like to think I'd have a joke with the noose man' 

Bill and Tim Gredley: 'If I don't like a trainer, that's it - whether they're a good trainer or not' 

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