Roberto (horse)

Roberto made his debut in the Lagan Stakes in July 1971 at the Curragh Racecourse. He won impressively and then contested the Anglesey Stakes also at the Curragh which he won easily. He returned to win the National Stakes over the same course, drawing comparisons to Nijinsky. He was then sent to France to contest the Grand Critérium at Longchamp Racecourse and finished fourth behind Hard To Beat.[6]

At age three, Roberto began his season by winning the Vauxhall Trial Stakes at Phoenix Park Racecourse and was then sent to England to contest the Classic 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. He was held up in the early stages but stayed on strongly to finish second by half a length to High Top, with the pair finishing six lengths clear of the other runners. Roberto had been ridden in the 2000 Guineas by the Australian jockey Bill Williamson. Williamson sustained a shoulder injury in a fall at Kempton Park Racecourse ten days before the Epsom Derby and after a slow recovery such that he was not able to ride before Derby Day, he was replaced by Lester Piggott.[7]

Roberto started the 3/1 favourite for the Derby in a field of twenty-two runners. He and outsider Rheingold battled neck and neck from a furlong and a half out after Pentland Firth was squeezed a little for room and dropped away. Rheingold was marginally ahead until the very last stride. when Piggott edged Roberto home on the rails. Piggott actually thought he had been beaten, while Rheingold's jockey, Ernie Johnson, said afterwards that the winning post had come one stride too late for his horse.[8] In a virtual dead heat, Roberto got up to win by the shortest of short heads.[9] This victory, confirmed only after a stewards' enquiry,[10] was poorly received by the crowd, many of whom felt that Williamson had been unfairly deprived of the ride. The win made John Galbreath the first person to own winners of both the English and American Derbys, since he had also won the 1963 Kentucky Derby with Chateaugay and the 1967 Kentucky Derby with Proud Clarion. Roberto was then returned to Ireland for the Irish Derby but produced a dismal[6] performance and finished twelfth of the fourteen runners behind Steel Pulse.[11]

In the inaugural edition of the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup in 1972, many racing observers believed that Derby runner up, Rheingold, would prove to be a better horse than Roberto – he had subsequently won the Grand Prix de St Cloud while Roberto had run poorly in the Irish Derby. Leading jockey Lester Piggott abandoned Roberto to ride Rheingold. However, most interest focused on the four-year-old Brigadier Gerard whose presence generated enormous publicity for the race. Undefeated in fifteen career starts, Brigadier Gerard was seen as invincible.[12] Having lost jockey Piggott, and with the first-choice reserve Williamson committed to riding in Belgium. Vincent O'Brien took the advice of Roberto's owner John Galbreath, and flew in the Panamanian-born American jockey Braulio Baeza. Riding for the first time on an English racetrack, according to 'Raceform', a leading publisher of U.K. horseracing information, "Braulio Baeza aboard Roberto was out of the stalls like a bat out of hell."[13] After disputing the lead with Bright Beam (entered in the race as a pacemaker for the absent Mill Reef) he opened up a clear advantage approaching the straight. With Rheingold struggling, Brigadier Gerard emerged as Roberto's only serious challenger but after getting to within a length of the Derby winner the favourite could make no further progress. Roberto drew away in the final furlong to win by three lengths from Brigadier Gerard in a new course record time.[14] Brigadier Gerard finished officially 10 lengths ahead of the third horse, Gold Rod, which indicated that he had run up to his best form, however examination of the race film replay showed, and the Brigadier's owner, John Hislop, later acknowledged, that the distance between the second and third was in fact 17 lengths, indicating that Brigadier Gerard, who also broke the course record, may have run his best ever race in defeat.[15]

Roberto ran in two more races in the autumn of 1972 but failed to reproduce his York form. At Longchamp in September, he finished a length second to Hard To Beat in the Prix Niel. A month later over the same course and distance, he finished seventh behind San San in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.[6]

As a four-year-old, Roberto was sent to France to contest the Prix Ganay but was withdrawn from the race owing to injury. He then returned to Ireland, where he finished second to Ballymore in the Nijinsky Stakes. In June, he recorded his only success of the season when easily beating the 1972 Yorkshire Oaks and 1973 Geoffrey Freer Stakes and Doncaster Cup winner, Attica Meli, by five lengths in record time in the Coronation Cup.[16] He was a late withdrawal from the Eclipse Stakes due to heavy ground and then finished eleventh of the twelve runners behind Dahlia in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.[6]