Mill Reef (1968–1986) was a magnificent athlete who enjoyed a meteoric short career that was tragically put to an end by an injury.
The flat horse racer was owned by Paul Mellon, a wealthy American. In one year, Mill Reef won the Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the French Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Mill had a career that was filled with notable victories and over a surprisingly wide range of distances. He is known to have taken the Coventry S by over eight lengths. He took the Dewhurst by four, the Gimcrack by 10, the Eclipse by four, the Derby by two, the Arc by two and King George by six. He also took the Prix Ganay by an extraordinary ten lengths.
The brilliance of this horse was reflected in his Timeform ratings of 133 at only two years, 141 at three and 141 again at four.
It was appropriate that one of his most remarkable performances came in the Gimcrack S, a match named in honor of the eighteen-century star who stood more than 14 hands. Mill Reef fractured his near-fore at the end of August in 1972. A triangle of bone some two and a half inches long was found to have broken from the lower end of the cannon bone. Fortunately, an international veterinary team succeeded in saving him for a stallion career at the beginning of 1973.
Mill Reef went down with qualities of consistency, courage, soundness, superb action and an ability to act on any type of ground. He passed this streak to most of his sires. In his very successful stud career, his offsprings were amongst the winners (in 1978) of the Shirley Heights, the French Derby, the Acamas and the 1987 derby winner.
Mill Reef died in 1986 and was buried at the National Stud where a statue stands in his honour and memory.
