‘Never back a grey horse’: Where the Cheltenham Festival superstition comes from

If you loitered in betting shops in the dying decades of the 20^th century, you encountered all sorts. From pin-stripe suits to donkey jackets, men — and it was invariably men — who would never have said a word to one another on the street exchanged opinions as if long-time friends. Meanwhile, the young wide-eyed innocent was viewed as the natural receptacle for — generally useless — punting advice, whether required or not. ‘Never bet on a runner ridden by such and such a jockey because he stops his horses,’ was one bitterly expressed piece of nonsense you could swiftly discard. ‘If the favourite loses, double your stake on the favourite in the next race,’ was another. But the hoariest old stand-by was: ‘Give the swerve to the grey nags.’

Almost all grey racehorses trace their line back to Alcock's Arabian, who was, possibly, imported to this country from Istanbul in the early 18^th century, eventually standing as a stud in Lincolnshire (a smaller number of greys are traceable back to a son of Brownlow Turk). Alcock's Arabian’s progeny included the unpromisingly named Crab, who won a King’s Plate at Newmarket and was subsequently champion sire for three successive years from 1748-1750. The popularity of Alcock’s Arabian’s brood mares ensured a flourishing grey line through the remainder of the century.

Grey, however, is not a true Thoroughbred colour, but a gene that modifies ‘natural’ bay and brown colours by de-pigmenting coat hairs as the animal ages. This is why many of the more durable racehorse greys become so strikingly white as the seasons go by. The influential 20^th century Italian Thoroughbred breeder Federico Tesio (1869-1954) described grey as ‘a pathological discolouration’ and ‘a strange disease of pigmentation’. Yet, long before his time, a perception had arisen that a grey had a heightened susceptibility to visual impairments and other illnesses, notably a higher likelihood of developing melanomas on the skin. There were also doubts about the temperament of greys, with a suspicion that they were nervous and tricky to handle.

As no horse is born grey without one of its parents being grey, it followed that stud owners tried to breed the colour out. A dwindling number of greys inevitably reduced the pool of good horses, and thus the number of winning greys on the track. The prejudice against betting on greys thus became self-fulfilling (the racing historian Michael Church has written that the percentage of grey racehorses ‘has generally hovered at around 3%’). It has meant that, every year around Aintree time, racing pundits trot out the old cliche that ‘greys never win Grand Nationals’. They know they are on safe ground when so few compete. Only three greys have won the race — The Lamb (1868 and 1871), Nicolaus Silver (1961) and Neptune Collonges (2012).

However, just as the idea that chestnuts are flighty has been exploded by the likes of Hyperion, Flyingbolt, Secretariat, Tingle Creek, Double Trigger and Stradivarius, there have been many greys who have been top class under either Flat or National Hunt rules. Although only four grey colts have won the Derby — the most recent was Airborne in 1946 — and a similar number of fillies have triumphed in the Oaks — the last was Sleeping Partner in 1969 — the grey mare Alpinista was a popular winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2022. Under National Hunt rules, Rooster Booster won the Champion Hurdle in 2003.

Yet it is grey chasers that especially capture the public imagination. So many appear to float over fences like silver shadows. The beautiful Monet’s Garden was poetry in motion around Aintree. While the more rugged Bristol De Mai was reckoned to be unbeatable in the notorious Haydock Park mud, Teeton Mill and One Man won jump racing’s midwinter showpiece, the King George VI Chase, in the 1990s. At the Cheltenham Festival, Politologue took the Champion Chase in 1990.

However, the greatest of all the jumping greys was Desert Orchid, winner of the King George VI Chase four times. He also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in an epic fight up the hill in 1989. This year’s renewal features another gorgeous grey, Grey Dawning. He is not one of the favourites, but it would not be the most unexpected result if he became the first grey to triumph since the beloved ‘Dessie’.