In short, Desert Orchid ran his last race on December 26, 1991, in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park. By then a 12-year-old, ‘Dessie’ was attempting to win the Boxing Day showpiece for the fifth time in six years, having prevailed in 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990 and finished second, albeit at a respectful distance of 15 lengths, behind surprise winner Nupsala. However, on his final foray at the Sunbury-on-Thames course, despite being sent off 4-1 joint third favourite of the eight runners, behind Remittance Man and Sabin Du Loir, the iconic grey never really looked like winning and had already weakened out of contention when falling at the third-last fence.
It would be fair to say that it a disappointing end to a long, illustrious career, which saw Desert Orchid win 34 of his 70 races and over £650,000 in prize money. No slouch over the smaller obstacles, he was actually sent off second favourite for the 1984 Champion Hurdle, famously won by Dawn Run, but it was a bold, front-running steeplechaser that he would eventually find fame. Hugely versatile, distance-wise, Desert Orchid won the Tingle Creek Chase and Victor Chandler Chase, both over the minimum trip, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, over an extended 3 miles and 2½ furlongs, the Irish Grand National, over 3 miles and 4 furlongs, and the Whitbread Gold Cup, over an extended 3 miles and 5 furlongs.
It was testament to his status as a steeplechaser that, on March 16, 1989, despite being a stone better going right-handed, according to jockey Simon Sherwood, Desert Orchid was sent off 5/2 favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, run on unfavourable heavy going. He looked beaten on the run to the final fence, but rallied gamely on the climb to the line to beat Yahoo, who relished the conditions, by 1½ lengths.