OVERDOSE’S owner Zoltan Mikoczy has a Group One victory in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot as the priority of the Hungarian sprinter’s trip to Britain.
Mikoczy’s pride and joy arrived at Amanda Perrett’s stables in Pulborough, West Sussex, last weekend and all eyes will be on him in Saturday’s betfred.com Temple Stakes at Haydock.
Overdose’s tale is already an extraordinary one. Bought from Tattersalls for just 2,000 guineas as a yearling in 2006, the son of Starborough has a startling record of 15 wins from 16 starts and is supported fervidly in his nation of residence.
After outgrowing domestic and then central European opposition, he continued on the winning trail in Germany before ’winning’ the Prix de l’Abbaye that never was in 2008, blasting home first in France’s top sprint only for his distraught connections to realise it had been declared a false start.
There were incredible scenes when Overdose reappeared the following April at his home course of Kincsem Park as thousands turned out to see the ’Budapest Bullet’ win in a canter and the comparisons continued with the great American horse Seabiscuit as a beacon of positivity amid hard economic times.
As well as being considered the country’s best horse since Kincsem, a champion of the 1880s, Overdose appears to have been credited with entirely reinvigorating the Hungarian racing industry.
But he was not to race again that season because of a foot abscess, revealed by Mikoczy to be almost career-threatening and his life became rather shrouded in mystery as only occasional updates on his well-being appeared.
Overdose met with his first defeat the following year when playing up in the stalls at Baden-Baden but normal service resumed when he took a conditions event at Hoppegarten in impressive fashion on April 17, in a course-record time.
Whether Mikoczy, a steel magnate, is prone to hyperbole or simply highly enthusiastic could have been lost in translation, but he is clearly devoted to his horse.
“The racing in Hungary is getting better, thanks to Overdose and his achievements,” he said.
“There was a time in the 1990s when there was a deliberate attempt by the government to finish it off.”
CHRIS WRIGHT'S NAP: Aultcharn (5.20pm Lingfield).
