'When Hawk Wing was good, he was just exceptional'

The golden child of a golden generation.

The three-year-old class of 2002 were a bunch of nerds. Perfectionists, if you prefer. Rock Of Gibraltar and High Chaparral rarely failed to find an answer and ended their careers with 13 Group 1 wins between them, yet there was always a suspicion that on his day Hawk Wing was better than both.

Exceptional 2003 Lockinge winner Hawk Wing dies of colic in Korea aged 26

That day was May 17, 2003. The track was Newbury. The distance was a mile. The race was the Lockinge. The result was never in doubt. It was proof that all we thought we knew about Hawk Wing was actually true after all. The day the problem child turned golden again.

Hawk Wing's Classic campaign the previous year was smothered with setbacks. The National Stakes winner at two was sent off 6-4 favourite to land the 2,000 Guineas on his first start at three but he succumbed to stall 13. He flew home and won his side emphatically. The problem was that he was on the wrong side. Rock Of Gibraltar, who came out of stall one, beat him by a head.

The Derby was always going to stretch his stamina but that did not stop him being sent off favourite again. The unbeaten High Chaparral was a warrior, though, and Hawk Wing could not get by. There was no shame in that, especially since the winner went on to take four more Group 1s.

Hawk Wing's sole success as a three-year-old was at Sandown in the Eclipse, but only four opposed him. He was 8-15. He did so in decisive fashion but beating his stablemate, Sholokhov, by two and a half lengths taught us nothing we didn't already know.

Odds-on defeats followed in the Irish Champion Stakes, a short-head reversal at the hands of Grandera, and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes before an audacious trip to the Breeders' Cup Classic did not work out.

No matter what rose-tinted glasses you looked through, Hawk Wing did not live up to the hype at three. One win from six starts, not the sort of record you would expect from a horse who had "unbelievable natural ability" according to his trainer Aidan O'Brien.

Mick Kinane was aboard for all five of Hawk Wing's winsCredit: Edward Whitaker

The 2003 Lockinge was only his third try over a mile and it was a case of third time lucky, although there was little luck involved in the triumph. Just pure class.

"It was an unusual scenario in that there was no pace in the race – very strange for a Group 1," recalls jockey Mick Kinane.

"Desert Deer was withdrawn very late. He was supposed to make the running. I looked around me at the gates and realised nobody wanted to make it. I said to myself 'I may let this fella loose now'. He was a mile-and-a-quarter horse running over a mile, so I didn’t want to be hanging about. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I just thought there was no point sitting around."

That spur-of-the-moment decision meant we were treated to one of the most spine-tingling displays of the noughties. Hawk Wing was indeed let loose by Kinane and, while it was not exactly Tom Queally on Frankel in the Guineas, it was a similar sort of demolition job from the front. An annihilation.

Kinane explains: "I was concentrating on getting my fractions right in front, but I have to admit it got eerily quiet after passing the two-furlong pole. I couldn’t hear anything. By the time I got to the furlong pole I could hear nothing. There was no noise, no action of horses coming after me. I knew I must have been a good bit clear at that stage and, it turns out, I was!"

You can say that again, Mick. Hawk Wing revelled in his new role. Where Or When, his conqueror in the QEII at Ascot the previous season, tried to go after him but the pursuit was in vain. This was the day we had waited for. The day when no excuses were needed.

"He really stretched that day at Newbury. When he was good, he was just an exceptional racehorse. He really was," says Kinane. "He was the most fantastic specimen of a horse. One of the best specimens you would ever see, in fact."

Hawk Wing: a colt of 'unbelievable natural ability'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Hawk Wing was 11 lengths in front passing the winning post and it earned him a Racing Post Rating of 134. Revenge was dished out to Where Or When freezing cold. The French star miler Domedriver was demolished too.

Since 1988, only six horses – St Jovite (1992 Irish Derby), Turtle Island (1994 Irish 2,000 Guineas), Celtic Swing (1994 Racing Post Trophy), Septimus (2008 Irish St Leger), Ghaiyyath (2019 Grosser Preis von Baden) and Alson (2019 Criterium International – have won Group 1s by further than he did that day.

The rain poured down on Newbury but it could not dampen the mood of those who were watching. Each and every one knew they were witnessing something out of the ordinary.

Kinane knew Hawk Wing better than anyone. He was on board for ten of his 12 starts and for all five of his wins.

"You know what, Hawk Wing was actually an unlucky racehorse," says Kinane. "He could easily have won more races than he did and a lot of the time it was not his own fault that he didn’t.

"He was on the wrong side in the Guineas and he bumped into what turned out to be a phenomenal miler in Rock Of Gibraltar. There was little he could do about that.

"He then took in the Derby, where the ground went against him. He didn’t stay but he still ran a hell of a race to finish second to a superstar in High Chaparral.

"But that day at Newbury was the best feel he ever gave me. That was Hawk Wing at his best."

Aidan O'Brien is congratulated after Hawk Wing's 2002 Eclipse victoryCredit: Edward Whitaker

O’Brien was blessed with some top-class colts during the Hawk Wing era but he never spoke about any of them in the same way he spoke about the gorgeous son of Woodman who ended his career with an official rating of 137.

O’Brien said of Hawk Wing: "Watching him, it always quickened your heart. He was a most unusual horse. We were always of the mind that we could run him at any distance between six and 12 furlongs. I think ten furlongs was his optimum, and we were not afraid to step back to a mile.

"Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the Triple Crown or Nijinsky at the start of the year when he was a three-year-old, but he always worked unbelievably at home, in his action, ability and the way he's put together in his head. I didn't mean to hype him, but when you get a horse that excites you that much in the morning you want to share it."

It would have been such a shame had Hawk Wing not done what he did in the Lockinge. We would have been left wondering how good he was and never known there was a performance like that in his locker.

Every single one of his defeats was a bitter pill to swallow as the talent was there to go through his whole career unbeaten. That said, the defeats only made the victories sweeter and there was none as sweet as the 2003 Lockinge – the magical May day when Hawk Wing finally swooped to conquer.

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