1994: two-year-old season Celtic Swing raced for the first time at
Ayr on 16 July 1994, winning a two-year-old maiden race over seven furlongs by four lengths. This would be the only time he ran without starting as favourite. On 8 October 1994 he won over seven furlongs at
Ascot by eight lengths, beating the subsequently hugely successful
Singspiel. Although this created considerable excitement, the race that led to the hype was the
Racing Post Trophy over a mile at
Doncaster on 22 October 1994, which he won by twelve lengths. He was voted the
Cartier Racing Award as the top
European two-year-old colt. Going into 1995, expectations ran high for Celtic Swing with widespread claims that he would be one of the greatest horses of all time, and almost unprecedentedly short odds for the
2,000 Guineas and
Derby. Claims were even made that, 25 years after
Nijinsky had been the last horse to do it, he would also take the
St Leger and win the
colts' Triple Crown, which it was widely believed had become almost impossible due to specialist breeding.
1995: three-year-old season Almost inevitably, he never lived up to these grand expectations, which included a number of rapturous editorials in
The Times. Stepping back to seven furlongs, he made his seasonal debut on softened ground at
Newbury in the
Greenham Stakes on 22 April 1995. Although his win over
Bahri was not spectacular, he was still unchallenged, and he would have won by much more than the eventual one and a quarter lengths had he not been eased down. All was set for the 2,000 Guineas on 6 May 1995, a race run amid almost unbearable expectations (on that day's
Morning Line,
John McCririck said to
Jim McGrath, who was strongly involved with
Timeform which had said that the race was a "certainty", that if the horse did not win by at least eight lengths McGrath was finished). But the first cracks in Celtic Swing's armour suddenly emerged: although he fought back near the end, he could not beat the
French horse
Pennekamp, who eventually won by a head. Owner Peter Savill decided not to run in
The Derby, claiming that the ground at
Epsom was too firm for the horse's liking, and go instead for the
Prix du Jockey Club (the "French Derby") at
Chantilly on 4 June 1995. Here he started evens favourite, and won, but only by an unconvincing half-length over
Poliglote. His final race would be in the
Irish Derby at
The Curragh on 2 July 1995. Here he started as 5-4 favourite, but finished a bitterly disappointing eighth out of thirteen runners, never having looked like winning. Worse was to follow: he had been injured during the race, and the rest of his schedule for the season was abandoned. It had been intended to run him again as a four-year-old in the later part of the 1996 season, but the injury recurred and, almost unnoticed, the much-hyped "wonderhorse" was quietly retired on 20 July 1996, more than a year after his last race. ==Stud record==