'So perfect in so many ways' - Northern Dancer relived as Adriana Zaefferer's painting shows in London

Every day is a Northern Dancer day somewhere in the world. Such is the stallion’s ubiquity, his blood will be in the majority of winners of every single stakes race in Europe and Australia, as well as a considerable percentage of those elsewhere in America and Asia.

This Saturday, June 8, marks the 60th anniversary of an actual Northern Dancer day, a madcap idea dreamed up by the mayor of Toronto to hail a Canadian champion who went very close to winning the American Triple Crown.

The wisdom of taking a hard-trained three-year-old colt, who was known to have a wayward temperament, on a ticker-tape parade along a main thoroughfare was quickly questioned and Northern Dancer was instead presented with a key to the city made out of a carrot.