One-eyed wonders: the horses who defied rogue joggers and stray bullets to gallop (half-blind) into our hearts

Suzy Smith once feared that Material World’s career was over before it had even begun, thanks to the unwanted intervention of a jogger on the Lewes downs. Yet this Cheltenham Festival-placed mare went on to prove the best horse Smith has ever trained – even without one of her eyes.

Material World is far from the only racehorse to have successfully overcome this serious affliction. Indeed, this article could just as feasibly start with a stray bullet from the rifle of a Classic-winning trainer or a shock defeat for the last northern-trained winner of the Derby. But instead let’s rewind the clock to 2002 and that rogue jogger – or “trespasser” as the trainer prefers to describe him.

Material World was the apple of Smith's eye at a time when she had only just started to train.