FOR readers of a certain age, the arrival each year of the Timeform publication, Racehorses of whichever year, was one of the most eagerly anticipated events. It would be hard to put into words the excitement I felt when it arrived in the post, leading to long evenings of study.

During my recent visit to the sales in Newmarket, I was lucky enough to be able to purchase two editions of that revered annual, those covering 1993 and a decade earlier. It led me to consider who the best horses were in those years, and to wonder what their legacy has been since.

For this week and next, I will check out the champion fillies and mares.

Forty years ago Timeform accorded Lemon Souffle the title of champion two-year-old filly, ranked Intrepidity as the best three-year-old filly, while Lochsong was given the honour of being the champion sprinter.

Lemon Souffle was bred by her owner, Lord Carnarvon at the Highclere Stud in Berkshire, from a family which had been in his ownership for many generations. She was sent into training with Richard Hannon senior and proved to be an outstanding juvenile, winning her first four starts.

The highlight of these was her eased-down victory in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, the second time the race was run over the extended trip of seven furlongs. The 1992 renewal of the race had seen a significant increase in the quality of the field, and four classic winners contested the first staging of the race over the new trip.

Lemon Souffle was rated the champion juvenile filly, in spite of being beaten into third place in the Cheveley Park Stakes. She finished a brave third, but was discovered to have damaged a tendon and had to undergo surgery.

Initially considered to have been a possible career-ending injury, Lemon Souffle did run twice at three, winning Group 2 Falmouth Stakes.

Eight winners

A daughter of the Group 1 Prix de la Foret winner Salse (Topsider), responsible also for Luso, Classic Cliché and another Moyglare Stud Stakes winner in Bianca Nera, Lemon Souffle was the best of eight winners out of Melodrama (Busted). That mare’s other notable performers includes Caramba (Belmez), and she too won the Falmouth Stakes and the Group 2 Nassau Stakes.

At stud, where she visited sires in Ireland, the USA and Japan to where she was eventually sent, Lemon Souffle bred three winners, and she is grandam of the Japanese listed winner Delizia Al Limone (King Kamehameha) and the Grade 2 juvenile hurdle winner Lemon Silk (Barathea).

When Intrepidity won the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom in 1993, she was the fourth winner of the race in nine years for Sheikh Mohammed. Trained by André Fabre, she went into the race after a victory in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary, and she later added the Group 1 Prix Vermeille to her tally of five wins.

Private buy

A private purchase by Sheikh Mohammed, Intrepidity is out of Intrepid Lady (Bold Ruler). That mare was previously in the ownership of the Ballydoyle and Swettenham Studs, but sold to bloodstock agent Mike Ryan for 155,000gns at the 1989 Tattersalls December Sale, carrying Intrepidity.

Intrepid Lady had made her mark at stud, producing the Group 2 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Calandra (Sir Ivor), the leading Irish sprinter Acushla (Storm Bird) and the stakes winner River Prince (Forli), while after Intrepidity – who was born when her dam was 20 – she went on to leave a fifth stakes winner, Squadron Leader (Storm Bird).

By contrast, Intrepidity was a huge disappointment at stud.

As a daughter of Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) much was expected of her, but her dozen offspring yielded just five winners, the most prolific of which was Deodatus (Darshaan) who won 10 races in the UAE. In terms of any blacktype, two of Intrepidity’s great-grandsons were placed in listed races in Australia and Japan.

Jeff Smith

This year Jeff Smith was honoured with a Cartier Award for his outstanding contribution to and participation in racing and breeding for many decades, and if there was to be one horse with whom he is inextricably linked, it would probably be the Ian Balding-trained Lochsong (Song). Here was a mare who overcame all sorts of tribulations to establish herself as a sprinter of the highest order.

Barely able to stand training at two when in the care of Lord John Fitzgerald. Lochsong was bred by Jeff Smith at his Littleton Stud. She was sent to Ian Balding with the intention “to have a shot with her to see if we could win any sort of contest before retiring her to the paddocks”. She possessed an acceptable, if not outstanding, pedigree, but hopes of that win were considered a longshot.

With bad joints, which were said to horrify her trainer, and suffering from intermittent lameness, consideration was given to retiring Lochsong in the immediate aftermath of winning a Redcar maiden at three. After a repeat victory on her next start, connections decided to keep her in training again and again, and at the ages of five and six she was at her peak.

By the time she went to stud, Lochsong was ranked as the best older mare racing in Europe on two occasions. For a mare with such problems as she did, it is remarkable to think that she won 15 races and placed 10 times.

Her victories included the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp twice, her only successes outside England, the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes and the now Group 1, then Group 2, King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Most successful

Of the three champion fillies and mares in 1993, Lochsong was the most successful at stud. Barren on five occasions, including her first year in the breeding shed, she went on to have eight living progeny, five of which were winners. Two of that quintet were stakes winners, and the first of these was Lochridge (Indian Ridge). A listed victory at Pontefract was the best of her five wins and she was placed in the Group 2 Diadem Stakes at Ascot.

Loch Verdi (Green Desert) was Lochsong’s second stakes winner, and her win in the Listed Flower of Scotland Stakes at Hamilton Park was the highlight of her four triumphs In addition to these stakes winners, Lochsong is the third dam of another pair of blacktype winners, one in Turkey and City Code (Kodiac) in Sweden.

Six years after the birth of Lochsong, her half-sister Lochangel (Night Shift) was foaled. She only won three times, but she emulated the achievement of her sibling when she triumphed in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. She too has enjoyed success at stud, breeding five winners, but she is the grandam of Group 2 winner and Group 1 Prix Ganay third Norse King (Norse Dancer), and the Group 3 winners Dancing Star (Aqlaam) and Foxtrot Lady (Foxwedge).

Song recalled

Few will recall Lochsong’s sire nowadays. Song, a son of Sing Sing (Tudor Minstrel), was a top-class sprinter and his victory in the 1969 Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes was the highlight of his career, one that encompassed seven wins at two and three. As a juvenile he won the Group 3 New Stakes at Royal Ascot and was runner-up in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes.

At stud, Song sired the dual South African Group 1 winner Bred Rabbit in his first crop, the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and Group 1 Flying Childers Stakes winner Devon Ditty in his fifth, while Lochsong was a member of his 17th crop. She was born in the same year that Song died, and she was a member of his penultimate crop.