3 minute read

‘An amazing filly like that, she will be in your life forever’.

Jockey Olivier Peslier led the tributes to Goldikova after the brilliant racemare died, aged 16.

The daughter of Anabaa won 17 of her 27 career starts for trainer Freddy Head and owners the Wertheimer brothers, including 14 Group or Grade One victories.

In 2010 she became the first horse to win the same Breeders' Cup race on three occasions when completing a hat-trick in the Mile, while she claimed two top-level wins on British soil in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

She was retired in 2011 after finishing third in her bid for a fourth Breeders' Cup Mile success at Churchill Downs – and Peslier, who was ever-present in the saddle during Goldikova's racing career, has nothing but happy memories.

He said: "It's very sad that she has passed away. She was a champion and an amazing filly.

"We travelled all over the world together, going to America and winning three times at the Breeders' Cup. We went to Royal Ascot and won and won many races in France as well, of course.

"It's very similar to Frankie Dettori and Enable – when you ride an amazing filly like that, she will be in your life forever. We have both ridden many winners and many Group One winners, but a filly like this – winning 14 Group Ones – it's different.

"The owners were fantastic to keep her in training for as long as they did. She could have been retired, but the owners were like fans and they wanted to see her run."

Goldikova went on to produce several foals, most notably Galileo filly Terrakova, who won a Group Three for Head in the same colours and was only narrowly beaten when third in the 2017 French Oaks.