For hundreds of years men have attempted to breed the perfect racehorse, the one that will be outstandingly greater than all the others of its generation. This book, with Julian Wilson's personal selection of the greatest racehorses ever, is a chronicle of a number of those men's successful achievements; of the one horse in 10,000 that stands head and shoulders above the field. With profiles of Desert Orchid, Cigar, Shergar and Lammtarra amongst many others, every entry also includes the blood-lines of the horse. THE GREAT RACEHORSES is a tribute to the truly great racehorses of the past 200 years, from Eclipse to Dancing Brave on the flat, from Manifesto to Dawn Run under National Hunt rules. Some were bred by a genius who devoted a lifetime to the pursuit whilst others were bred completely by chance. Julian Wilson has not attempted an 'order of merit'; such a task would be impossible, as each horse has its own special story of triumph, tragedy and pathos. The true hero - or heroine - of each story is not the owner, the breeder, the trainer; it is that glorious sporting creature, the racehorse.