Halling, a son of Diesis, was initially trained by John Gosden and did not make his debut until three.
His first win came in the unassuming form of a Ripon handicap and few present that day in August 1994 could have predicted that it would mark the first of eight consecutive triumphs, culminating in victory at the highest level.
On his final start at three, Halling was a rare runner for Sheikh Mohammed in the nine-furlong cavalry charge that is the Cambridgeshire Handicap at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile course. Sent off as 8-1 co-favourite, he duly obliged in scintillating fashion, scoring by two and a half lengths over his 29 rivals.
A winter of sunshine beckoned for Halling in Dubai, and he won his three starts at Nad al Sheba before returning to Britain.
His first race in Britain in 1995 was the G1 Eclipse Stakes, in which he defeated Singspiel and the globe-trotting Red Bishop, also both owned by Sheikh Mohammed, in a pulsating finish which marked a high point in the early years of Godolphin.
Halling’s triumph over Singspiel made him the tenth individual G1 winner for Godolphin and he also earned a significant nod in the operation’s history as the first to carry the royal blue colours to G1 victory in Britain.
Halling would go on to claim further glory in the G1 Juddmonte International at York, before completing the same double the following year.
After his first York success, jockey Walter Swinburn called him: “the complete racehorse – the most versatile I have ever sat on.”
The 2015 Irish Derby winner Jack Hobbs and his fellow G1 winners Cavalryman, Cutlass Bay and Empoli head a list of over 50 Stakes winners for Halling, whose legacy looks set to continue for many years to come.
