Dahlia - 1973 & 1974 King George

Dahlia - The great French filly of the 1970's becomes the first horse to win 2 King Georges.

[@AnimalsRock4Love]

She was amazing. One of the best ever.

[@leesog3203]

We thought Taghrooda was good, but Dahlia was something else..

[@shalakhani]

Indeed a great filly and an exceptional broodmare as well which is not always the case with high class race mares. Many thanks for the Man O'War.

[@tigerboy1966]

The races that turned me on to (flat)horse racing. Listened to one of these races (can't remember which one)as a six or seven year old on a little transistor radio on Ainsdale beach during my summer holiday. I remember thinking "OOh she should run in the Grand National against Red Rum"- I was VERY young!

[@Kellsboro]

French filly? She was born in the US and owned American Nelson Bunker Hunt. While she was based overseas for much of her career she started and finished her career in the US.

[@TGP109]

It may have been Lester Piggot who said that Dahlia had the greatest acceleration of any horse he rode.

[@marysueeasteregg]

Could you Europeans give me some info on 3-yr-old fillies who have beaten older males? I remember Dahlia doing it at Laurel here in the U.S. & Miesque at a mile, in the Breeders Cup. Much is being made of Rachel Alexandra beat- ing 3-yr-old colts 2X this yr & older males once; she's the best American filly I've seen, as good or better than Ruffian. We had not had a 3-yr- old f. beat older males in a route race on dirt for 60+ yrs; several did it in the 1st half of 20th c. Your girls do more.

[@stateofdreams1]

In 50 years of watching racing I have never seen a better filly than Dahlia. I know she never beat Allez France is six attempts. But I seriously doubt that Allez France would have beaten her in either of these King Georges.

[@GermanOperaSinger]

+stateofdreams1 Allez France was near invincible at Longchamp but she never traveled well. On any other track especially outside France, Dahlia would've probably defeated her. Dahlia won major Group 1 races in 4 different countries, for versatility she was definitely the superior horse.

[@quick46]

Allez France was trained by a drugs cheat & was probably high as a kite most of her wins

[@marysueeasteregg]

Have you changed your mind, in the wake of Enable?

[@GlenWFord-ps8ts]

I would have loved to have seen her race Ruffian. Ruffian was undefeated.

[@21shergar]

How easy was that 1974 win!

[@leesog3203]

And to think Secretariat would have been 4 1/2 to 9 lengths clear of Dahlia.. Not sure what to make of that.. But according to Timeform she was 132 in 1973, while Secretariat was 144, with Beyer suggesting he was 153.

[@leesog3203]

Hey, totally agree, he seemed untouchable on dirt, but on Turf, I'm not so sure, especially if his Man O'War is anything to go by.. He's very good but doesn't strike me as a 140+ horse.. so who knows, maybe Dahlia had his measure as a 3 year old.. Though, besides Sea Bird (and a handful of others) all the great Turf horses had a chance to develop and race as 4 year old, so there's no telling how special Secretariat may have been had he stayed in training :)

[@jamesfitzgerald6636]

You can’t judge American horses! They run around dog tracks! Anti clock wise! No hills! Racetracks in America suck! Ascot Epsom Sandown longchamp Goodwood Newmarket Real tests for horses not those American tracks! Sea Bird would have beaten S Easy!

[@glynnevans1851]

@@jamesfitzgerald6636 Hi James, quite agree with you sir. Dahlia in my view was so genuine and very underrated. Those 2 King George s were Remarkable and she beat high class fields. My late Dad ust to say figures on paper can be pulled apart if a particular horse is not 100%. This was apparent in the 72 Benson and Hedges at York when the Brigadier got beat by Roberto 'the late Joe Mercer was a very acumlished horse man and modest too stated after the race the Brigadier coughed up a whole bucket of mucus and was dehydrated because he was unwell. Also my dad stated ifs buts n may be s don't win races especially Grand Nationals 'think he was referring to 1967 when countless jockeys n trainers said they would of won but Fornavion just kept going. Kind regards Glynn n greetings from Stourbridge West Midlands🤝