From Frankie's seven to Dessie's Gold Cup, the countdown is nearly over - which race will complete The Story Of Horseracing in 20 races?

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It's very nearly time to find out which is the final race in our series, The Story Of Horseracing in 20 Races. We started back in May with the very first Derby, run in 1780, and have steadily scrolled forwards over more than 200 years, reaching Frankie Dettori's 'Magnificent Seven' last week.

So what will the final race be to complete this epic set? As a clue, I can tell you it is the only race in our series which took place in the 21st century. You can find out here at 6pm on Monday.

It was great fun to be involved; I wrote up three of the races, only one of which took place during my lifetime, so quite a bit of research was required. But I especially enjoyed describing Dettori day, when he went through the card at Ascot in 1996, because I remember what that was like at the time.

I'd seen Dettori in action only a fortnight earlier, when he won the St Leger on Shantou (8-1). It was a sort of preview of the Magnificent Seven because Pat Eddery rode the runner-up in Khalid Abdullah's silks, just as he would in the final race at Ascot. The winning margin, a neck, was also the same.

On Dettori's biggest day, I was wandering around Edinburgh on a day off from trying to do a real job, seeing some people and trying not to spend money I didn't have. If only I'd invested in the cheeky young champion jockey, as everyone else seemed to have done.

Whenever they were due to start a race at Ascot, I ducked into the nearest betting shop to watch, quite a well-established Saturday habit. Usually, there wouldn't be many others glued to the action by race four, but this time the crowd kept getting bigger and bigger as the afternoon wore on.

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It was like a roulette wheel that keeps coming up red, as if no other option were possible, and you see people starting to trust that it will keep on happening. It worked and they were coining it. But it just happened that one time.

The sensation of Dettori Day is only part of the reason it made our list. It was also the springboard from which he became racing's best-known figure of the past 30 years, not just the subject of books but a movie as well.

Lasting significance, that's what John Randall, the Racing Post's historian, had in mind when he compiled our list. "I was looking for races that instigated a new era in the sport," he tells the Front Runner.

So we had the first race run from starting stalls and the first race run on an all-weather surface - good Lord, the controversy caused by those things we now take for granted. I especially loved Sir Jack Jarvis's reaction to the first race from stalls: "Bugger, that worked perfectly."

There was the first race open to female jockeys, a chance for pressmen of the time to write things that look really embarrassing, 53 years later. Thankfully, that'll never happen to my stuff.

"Women are just not strong enough or tough enough, on equal terms, to take on professional men jockeys in a whip-slinging finish," wrote one. We've come a fair way since those days - and yet, not as far as might have been expected.

Some races made our list just by being wonderful: Red Rum's third National, Arkle v Mill House, Dessie's Gold Cup. Those are all embedded in racing lore, among the first stories you have to learn if you're going to live in this world.

So what kind of race will our last one be? A source of innovation or a memorable moment of equine magic? Neither John Randall nor I are allowed to give clues.

Desert Orchid: glorious grey made the list

We talk about how his enthusiasm for racing and its heritage grew. John was six years old when the Grand National was televised for the first time, in 1960, when Merryman won. He describes himself as being "transfixed" by the experience and knows others of his generation who had a similar experience. "Little did I know it, but my whole future was laid out in front of me," he says.

Television is an innovation which didn't quite make our cut of 20 races, showing how tough was the competition for a place in the field. "It took a long time - a lot of research, a lot of thought," John says of the process by which he came up with the list.

There are races that absolutely had to be on there and others that will be a surprise to almost any reader - notably the Newmarket handicap which led to a revolution in riding styles.

I've said before that racing's heritage needs careful work to preserve it, so this is an important project to me. I hope you can find a moment to dip into it. I'm certain it will enrich your understanding and appreciation of your favourite sport.

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Read the rest of the Story of Horseracing in 20 Races series:

1. The day racing changed forever: how the 1780 Derby sparked a 250-year turf revolution 

2. The Grand National didn't start in 1839 - this is the true story of racing's greatest race 

3. The dust-up to end all dust-ups that brought 150,000 to the Knavesmire - with not a public hanging in sight 

4. 'The killer of the English' - Gladiateur and the day Britain lost control of its greatest race 

5. How a son of slaves was mocked and abused by his peers - but then imitated forever 

6. The most dramatic and sensational race ever run - with tragic consequences that left racing under siege 

7. The Cheltenham Gold Cup transformed and Britain v Ireland ignited - all thanks to a young trainer who would become a legend 

8. How Longchamp's great leap forward redrew the map of world racing - with the help of a Hollywood icon

9. 'It was an impossible idea, just crazy' - how the godfather of international racing pushed back the sport's frontiers forever 

10. How Ireland became a global racing and bloodstock giant - thanks to a cash injection linked to one of the country's biggest scandals 

11. It was meant to be Cheltenham’s ultimate duel - it was actually the most incredible demolition job from the greatest of all time 

12. ‘Bugger, that worked perfectly’ - no more flags, fiascos and false starts (almost) as British racing is dragged into the modern age 

13. From patronising headlines to a place in history: the first step for women in a race still far from run

14. How Red Rum got off the beach to enter racing history - and breathed new life into Britain's greatest race

15. The day Sheikh Mohammed got the train to Brighton, was misnamed in the racecard and got hooked on British racing 

16. The greatest training achievement of all time - and why it put the intense visionary behind it through 'absolute hell' 

17. 'Dessie has done it' - how everyone's favourite grey overcame his greatest nemesis and captured a nation's hearts 

18. ‘What a waste of money,’ they cried - now racing couldn’t do without this vital lifeline

19. 'He should have been 1-4!' - reliving the only joyful day in British racing history when everything went wrong for the bookies

To celebrate The Story of Horseracing in 20 Races, the Racing Post's epic weekly series that has run through 2025, you can get your first month of Racing Post+ Ultimate for £20 when you sign up via web using code STORY20 – that's a whopping 60% discount. Available only to new and returning customers. Subscription will auto-renew at £49.95 unless you call our cancellation line to cancel. Sign up now.