HE WAS famous for being first past the post now he’s helping deliver it.

Legendary racehorse Desert Orchid, who was trained in Hampshire, is to be commemorated on a postage stamp to be issued in April.

The gallant grey captured the hearts of public in the late 1980s and and early 1990s and became a household name in a way in which few racehorses, apart from the likes of Arkle and Red Rum, have done before or since.

He was also a favourite with the regular punters and was voted the second-most popular racehorse of all time in a Racing Post poll.

Dessie, as he was affectionately known, was trained by David Elsworth at his yard at Whitsbury, near Fordingbridge, where he would often receive Christmas cards and presents from his army of fans. 

Born in 1979 as a bay, Dessie, who grew whiter with age, was the son of Grey Mirage Dessie and was owned by Richard Burridge.

Dessie was a top class hurdler, despite falling in his first race. However after a poor showing in Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, Elsworth switched the horse to the bigger steeple chase fences in the 1985-86 season during which he recorded a series of four straight wins.

The big-hearted horse really hit the headlines on Boxing Day 1986 when, starting at 16-1, he made all the running to win the prestigious King George VI Chase at Kempton with Simon Sherwood in the saddle for the first time.

The bold jumping, almost-white chaser would become synonymous with the King George, winning it again in 1988, 1989 and 1990 and ensuring he became a fixture of the Christmas sporting calendar.

However, the highpoint of Dessie’s career came in March 1989 when he reeled in Yahoo on the run-in to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup (regarded by many experts as a more prestigious race than the Grand National).

The Gold Cup triumph came on heavy ground, which Dessie hated, in front of a crowd of almost 60,000.

After the race jockey Simon Sherwood said: “I’ve never known a horse so brave. He hated every step of the way in the ground and dug as deep as he could possibly go.”

After eight consecutive wins, Desert Orchid then fell in the Martell Cup, which he had won the previous year.

The following season Richard Dunwoody took over as Dessie’s jockey and partnered him to a third King George victory.

Starting odds on favourite - a rare event in a jump race and a testament to his huge popularity - Dessie could only finish third in his defence of the Gold Cup in 1990 but bounced back to take the Irish Grand National.

The highlight of the 1990-91 season was Dessie’s fourth King George success, a record not matched until Kauto Star came along. 

Dessie’s last win came in the 1991 in the Agfa Diamond Chase at Sandown and he was third once more in the Gold Cup but his powers were on the wain.

It was at the King George, the race which had made his own, that Dessie’s career came to an end. After falling at the sixth his owners retired him.

Desert Orchid won 34 of his 71 starts and £654,066 in prize-money. 
He spent his retirement with Elsworth and died peacefully in his stable in Newmarket in 2006 shortly after the trainer had moved his yard from Whitsbury. He is buried by his statue at Kempton - his favourite course.

A plaque to his memory was unveiled in Whitsbury in 2008.

A brave but erratic jumper Desert Orchid’s career was marked out by his versatility, he won at distances of between two and three-and-half miles and because of the handicap was often carrying far more weight than his rivals. 

‘Dessie’ is included in Racehorse Legends a set of eight stamps showing champion horses - four on the flat four over jumps - achieving their greatest wins on UK race courses over six decades.