MAD DASH TO SEA THE STAR

The Welcome To Yorkshire Ebor Festival has always played a major part in the Ord summer holidays. We never ventured abroad (my dad having taken an anti-Spanish stance over their Eurovision Song Contest voting history) but had to be back in Yorkshire for the mid-August highlight.

These were golden days, especially for Ord senior who came close to retiring when Relkino's 1977 Benson & Hedges Gold Cup win formed part of a Dick Hern treble. It was that afternoon, aged five and watching from a stool, that I learned the importance of "don't tell your mum".

I haven't missed an Ebor meeting since (apart from the one we all did) - and here are my five favourite Juddmonte Internationals.

2009 Sea The Stars

It nearly wasn't number one - as I was only there for the morning and the post-race celebrations. But even they were special.

The wifi in the York press room, it has to be said, has attracted criticism over the years, but I couldn't blame a low beam for my laptop not playing ball that particular morning. Instead a colleague who had taken it to the golf had changed the settings meaning there was no connection to be had.

Like a fat and bearded Kevin The Teenager I stropped back to the office, threw the computer at the IT helpdesk, and sat down in a rage.

30 seconds later a guy in an Iron Maiden T-shirt returned it "repaired" and I was back on the A64. As I broke into a camp jog back towards the press room I saw the race was off on the big screen. Mick Kinane was momentarily caught in a pocket as Mastercrasftsman went for home and his pacemakers Georgebernardshaw and Cornish (who hell he) began to beat a retreat. It seemed there was trouble ahead.

But in the blink of an eye Sea The Stars was through the gap. He needed fairly vigorous riding to pick the leader up but was on top inside the final furlong and the crowd roared home a champion.

Kinane took the decision to walk John Oxx's star past the grandstand afterwards and they were warmly welcomed back to the winners' enclosure, including by a portly, sweating but very happy blogger.

1987 Triptych

While most 14-year-old boys spent the summer of 1987 hitting pause on their Betamax video controller during Basic Instinct, I was pondering long and hard in a pub in Rufforth. Would Triptych handle the mud at York? You see Tuesday dawned dark and grey and it rained, rained and rained again. At first it seemed the meeting may have been in jeopardy and then a bomb scare delayed matters even further.

Armed only with youthful enthusiasm and an orange pac-a-mac I braved it out. The good guys won too. We raced, Triptych never came off the bridle under the peerless Steve Cauthen and the game seemed easy.

2002 Nayef

Richard Hills has his knockers and on the 27th July 2002 I was one of them. Sat in the Black Rock Inn Wakefield, drinking Tetley's Bitter in its Leeds pomp, all was well with the world. That was until the King George at Ascot. I'd always been a Nayef believer, ever since his wide-margin win in the Autumn Stakes at Ascot as a two-year-old.

I kept the faith despite the 2000 Guineas flop at three and bringing him back to win the Champion Stakes at Newmarket later that year remains Marcus Tregoning's finest hour with a licence.

At four he'd won the Dubai Sheema Classic and a furlong out the King George too. Hills was in front, the son of Gulch was striding relentlessly towards the line and I was working out how to spend the winnings.

I never got the chance. Golan and Kieren Fallon in his prime cut him down. Switch the jockeys, switch the result I claimed, probably unfairly. At York they didn't switch the jockeys but with first-run Nayef got his revenge and I got some of the money back. I never did buy a Stone Island jacket though. And for that I thank King Kieren.

2000 Giant's Causeway

The Iron Horse rolled into town with his growing reputation and left with it enhanced. The beauty of this race was the fact the Kalanisi team came with a plan. After seeing the Coral-Eclipse snatched from their grasp by the Iron Horse's remarkable will-to-win it was decided to adopt the "you can't fight what you can't see" policy.

So as the Giant went for home, Pat Eddery steered Kalanisi down the centre of the track and began his run for glory. Momentarily it seemed as though it may work but under pressure he began to drift, the Iron Horse spotted him, and the battle was lost.

Those tactics were to work for the Observatory team in the QEII but at York the Giant had the answers.

2007 Authorized

In Woody Harrelson's film White Men Can't Jump. In the case of Dave Ord and Peter Chapple-Hyam it's fat men. My own humiliation came at Whitehaven in the autumn of 1998. As other Wakefield Trinity fans leapt over the fence at the Recreation Ground, Whitehaven, to celebrate sealing the league leaders shield, I was to be found laying on the ground in agony. My own vault felt at least a foot short, I cracked my knee on the metal railing and didn't walk properly for weeks.

PCH wasn't that bad - but when his brilliant Derby winner bounced back from an Eclipse defeat to beat Dylan Thomas at York he was jumping for joy. Sadly not high enough to clear the parade ring rail.

He recovered his dignity in time for an "guns in the air" celebration and I felt like joining in. I thought Authorized looked the real deal at Epsom and here he was back on top again.

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