Commanche Run

Bred in England, he was out of the mare, Volley. His sire was Run the Gantlet, an American multiple Grade I winner and successful sire. He was purchased and raced by Ivan Allan, an owner and preeminent trainer in Asian horse racing for many years. He was trained at Bedford House Stables in Newmarket, Suffolk by Luca Cumani.

Commanche Run made his racing debut on 13 October 1983 with second-place finish at Newmarket Racecourse. He next started at age three in May 1984 at York Racecourse, in the Group 2 Dante Stakes, a major trial for the Derby, finishing tenth. He then got his first win twelve days later on 28 May at Doncaster Racecourse. Moving up in company, the colt ran third in the 1984 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Princess of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket’s July Meeting. Commanche Run then was aimed at the Gordon at Goodwood racecourse. Luca Cumani’s stable jockey Darrell McHargue was suspended and was replaced by Lester Piggott. Ridden positively close to the leaders for the first time, Commanche Run took the lead three furlongs out and won impressively from Shernazar. With McHargue back in the saddle he won the March Stakes also at Goodwood later that month. Shortly before the St. Leger at Doncaster, McHargue was replaced by Piggott at the owner Ivan Allen’s instigation. The horse also suffered an injury scare in the days running up to the race. Always close up, Commanche Run took the lead four furlongs from home and won by a neck from Baynoun with Alphabatim in third.

At four Commanche Run was always ridden by Piggott and he went on to win two Group One races, capturing the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup and the Irish Champion Stakes, making three in total with the Classic, the St. Leger Stakes. He had also been a runaway winner of the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown Park on his first run of the year. He was then third in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes after a duel with the top-class filly Pebbles which saw them beaten by an outsider Bob Back. Commanche Run was withdrawn before the start of the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park in early July, and the injury he had sustained there prevented him from running in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes in late July.

In the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup at York he was ridden from the front by Piggott and beat a strong field, including the fillies Triple Crown winner Oh So Sharp and multiple Group 1 winning filly Triptych, with Palace Music the winner of the previous year’s Champion Stakes, and Bob Back well behind.^[1]