Dancing Brave winning the 'Arc'

Brian Elliott, Editor of the Point to Point and Hunter Chase Magazine remembers the brilliant Dancing Brave.

My story begins a few weeks prior to the ‘86 Arc when myself and a friend of mine called Kim, who has long since retired to Spain, were invited to Charlie Nelson’s Lambourn stable. During the day we were introduced to a docile flying machine called Double Schwartz, who Charlie, with a twinkle in his eye and a knowing nod, reinforced with ‘might well win the Prix de L’Abbaye on Arc Day’, gave both of us a mega-frane bet as a ‘starter.’

For some weeks we had planned this trip, keen to plunge francs on a horse we reckoned the best for many a year, Dancing Brave. If a horse was better named, I was yet to find it. Beaten in the Derby, Dancing Brave had been primed to reach stardom and a place in the record books by landing this Arc. Eddery was the pilot, and it all depended on his ice-cool nerve.

Arriving on the course we bet 50% of our bank on Double Schwartz, and boy were we happy when he defied his whopping 9 stone 11 pounds weight to win lik e a supercharged whippet! French students of form told Kim and I that Bering, under Gary Moore, would be ‘home and hosed’ before Eddery got his run, but we would not hear of it.

Triptych was the only horse we saw as a danger., ridden by Angel Cordero. We decided to plunge everything, bar the Gatwick Carpark ticket on Dancing Brave, and retired to the Members’ Bat to settle our nerves, and escape from the electric atmosphere that is Longehamp on Arc Day.

As the race unfolded, Dancing Brave struggled to go the early pace, and silence reigned from the English contingent in the stand. But slowly, ever so slowly at first, Eddery pumped away at Dancing Brave, until he responded with a turn of foot rarely seen in a racing man’s life, to beat Bering, and Triptych, in the shadow of this Gallic post.

The stands erupted, hats were thrown in the air, people cried (I think both of us, with relief) as we saluted this fabulous horse. Dancing Brave, now sadly recently gone to that big paddock in the sky, surely deserved his place in racing history for this record breaking Arc win alone.

For my money one girth notch down from Nijinsky, and a horse to be framed and remembered on every serious race-goer’s wall.