Desert Orchid had already earned the title of "the nation's favourite grey" when his day of destiny finally arrived.

Despite being favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup of 1989, as he lined up for the race it seemed the odds were stacked against him.

Pundits said he wouldn't cope with the testing ground and that even the left-handed course itself would be a problem.

"I mean Yahoo loved the slop and I was really quite confident.

"At the second last I was thinking "well this is it, paradise next stop, come on my boy we have cracked this my son!".

"I got very excited but Desert Orchid just would not give up, he was such a battling horse."

Dessie was owned by the Burridge family, and Richard Burridge said: "A lot of people have said, and Arkle certainly had it, that great horses have a sense of their own importance.

"And he is the most terrible show-off.

"I think he thought racing assumed going around a racecourse, have a bit of a lark and jump a few fences, completely ignoring any other horses in the race, and then you go and get applauded.

"I think that's what he thought the whole thing was about."