Thunder! Lightning! The day Zafonic won the Guineas in electrifying style
The brilliant French colt lit up the Rowley Mile with an unforgettable win
Thunder rumbled around the Rowley Mile, rattling the starting stalls. Lightning flickered behind the clouds, making the air crackle as the 14 Guineas colts walked in circles, 25 years ago this week. Another roll of thunder, another filigree frisson of lightning. The weather gods had played their part behind the scenes; the dramatic effect was entirely apposite. Something out of the ordinary was about to happen.
Pat Eddery steered Zafonic into stall ten. A few seconds later the gates opened and the odds-on favourite leapt forward, Eddery swift to restrain him, to settle him down, to husband his brilliance. The storm must break over Newmarket, but not yet.
In front, Silver Wizard and Nominator set blistering fractions down the centre of the course, towing their rivals along a little faster than they'd planned to go, the furlong poles flicking quickly past. Eddery waited on Zafonic, touched the brakes again. As the close-coupled field barrelled past halfway the Channel 4 commentator Graham Goode noted that "Zafonic is in a line of four for last place" before muttering, almost to himself, that "he's gonna have to be a very good horse to win from there".
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