page_title: Pebbles (horse)
section_title: 1985: four-year-old season
hierarchical_section_title: Pebbles (horse) / Racing career / 1985: four-year-old season
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking north at Aqueduct Racetrack.
context_page_description: Pebbles was a British-bred Thoroughbred race horse. In a racing career which lasted from 1983 until 1985 she ran fifteen times and won eight races. After showing good form as a two-year-old in 1983 she won the 1000 Guineas as a three-year-old. In 1985 Pebbles produced her most notable performances, becoming the first filly to win the Eclipse Stakes and then defeating an exceptionally strong field in the Champion Stakes. On her final racecourse appearance she became the first British-trained racehorse to win a Breeders' Cup race, when she won the Breeders' Cup Turf. She was regarded as one of the greatest fillies of the modern era.
context_section_description: Pebbles stayed in training at four and began her season by running in the inaugural Trusthouse Forte Mile at Sandown Park Racecourse in April. Ridden by Steve Cauthen, she recorded her first win in almost a year, beating Vacarme by one and a half lengths. On her next start, she was sent to Royal Ascot in June where she was matched against the 1984 St Leger winner Commanche Run, who had won the Brigadier Gerard Stakes by twelve lengths on his reappearance. Pebbles defeated the colt by a short head, but both the favourites finished behind the 33/1 outsider Bob Back. It was subsequently revealed that Pebbles had been in season at the time of her only defeat of the year.
  Pebbles faced Bob Back again in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, a race which no filly or mare had won since its inception in 1886. Commanche Run was a late withdrawal from the race, but the field included the Coronation Cup winner Rainbow Quest, who started 4/5 favourite. Brittain was worried that the filly's temperament would lead her to become over-excited and deliberately brought her into the paddock late. Pebbles was then re-plated, which Brittain later admitted was a deliberate ploy to delay the race and give her time to relax. Pebbles tracked the pacemaker August until accelerating into a clear lead early in the straight. According to Timeform, she "never looked in the slightest danger" and won easily by two lengths from Rainbow Quest, who went on to win that season's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Pebbles was expected to run next in either the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes or the Budweiser Million, but for unexplained reasons, she lost her appetite after her Eclipse win and Brittain decided to rest the filly until autumn.
  Pebbles returned for a highly anticipated renewal of the Champion Stakes. The field included the previous year's winner, Palace Music, Epsom Derby winner Slip Anchor and Commanche Run, who had won both the International Stakes and the Irish Champion Stakes, making him eligible for a $1M bonus if he added the Newmarket race. Ridden by Pat Eddery, Pebbles was restrained in the early stages before moving forward to dispute the lead a furlong from the finish. Eddery took a long look over his shoulder at the struggling opposition before allowing Pebbles to sprint clear. She was eased down in the last strides to win by three lengths from Slip Anchor, Palace Music and the Irish Oaks winner Helen Street. On her final appearance, Pebbles was sent to New York to contest the second running of the Breeders' Cup Turf at Aqueduct Race Track. Her owner paid a supplementary fee of $240,000 to run her in the $2M race, as she had not been among the original entries. Although it was the filly's first run abroad and her first over the distance of one and a half miles, she started 11/5 favourite in a field of fourteen. Pebbles missed most of the pre-race parade after Brittain bribed one of the Aqueduct staff to open a walkway, allowing her to join the other runners at the last moment. Eddery settled Pebbles at the back of the field in the early stages before moving up on the inside to take the lead early in the straight. The filly immediately went clear and held the late challenge of the Australian Champion Strawberry Road by a neck in a course record time of 2:27.00.
  On the strength of her single victory in the United States, Pebbles was awarded the 1985 Eclipse Award for American Champion Female Turf Horse. In the International Classification for 1985, Pebbles was the highest rated filly in Europe and the highest rated horse in the 6½ to 10½ furlong division. In the annual poll conducted by the Racegoers' Club, Pebbles received twenty-eight of the thirty votes to be named British Horse of the Year. She was also named Horse of the Year by Timeform. In their book A Century of Champions, Tony Morris and John Randall rated Pebbles the fourth-best British filly of the twentieth century behind Pretty Polly, Sun Chariot and Sceptre.
caption: Aqueduct Race Track, the scene of Pebbles' most valuable win.
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