Even though the best part of 50 years have elapsed since it took place, memories of the Ascot clash of Grundy and Bustino in the 1975 running of the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes burn brightly.
It was a spine-tingling duel up the Ascot home straight and it quickly became known as the 'Race of the Century' - a title by which it remains known by to this day.
A clash for the ages
Bustino was the 1974 St Leger winner for trainer Dick Hern and now a four-year-old who broke the track record in Epsom's Coronation Cup as he prepped for this Ascot date with destiny.
Grundy, meanwhile, was in the midst of a sparking Classic campaign for trainer Peter Walwyn which had already yielded wins in the Irish 2000 Guineas and Derby, as well as the Epsom Derby itself en route to this midsummer collision of the generations.
With dual King George heroine Dahlia, Irish Oaks winner Dibidale and Star Appeal - who would go on to land that year's Arc at Longchamp - all joining them at Ascot, it was anything but a personal squabble between this outstanding pair.
However, that is what transpired in one of the most iconic battles ever witnessed up the Ascot home straight.
Team Bustino going for gold
Grundy started favourite, getting weight from his elders, but Bustino's camp were very much up for the scrap as pacemakers Highest and Kinglet were deployed to try and draw the sting from the busy three-year-old.
A scorching early pace was set, the sort of dash not anticipated in a Group 1 contest over a mile-and-a-half, but it meant those pacemakers could not possibly hope to last home.
Joe Mercer, on board Bustino, had little option but take up the running with a half-mile still to run.
That he did, kicking on four-furlongs from the end and thus denying rival Pat Eddery any chance to fill the lungs of Grundy.
Warriors serve up a fitting finale
With memories of that St Leger win at Doncaster the previous season, both Mercer on Bustino and Eddery on Grundy would have known full well that the leader was not going to be overhauled for lack of stamina.
Trainer Hern was eager to test out Grundy in that regard, hence the double deployment of pacemakers at what legendary caller Sir Peter O'Sullevan duly noted as "a really blistering gallop".
Years later, Mercer revealed he thought he was going to win with two furlongs to run, but he could hear the sounds of Eddery and his mount coming from behind him.
Bustino, his jockey said, changed his legs with a furlong to run and that allowed Grundy to get alongside and, ultimately, win by a half-length at the line.
Grundy's winning time of 2:26.98 broke the race record by almost two and a half seconds, illustrating just how quickly the field had been taken along early and how admirably the front pair had maintained the gallop in the closing stages. The record stood until 2010.
Grundy was voted British Horse of the Year in 1975, but that Ascot war left a mark and he didn't win either of his final two starts that summer before being retired to stud.
Bustino, for his part, never raced again after the 1974 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Their Ascot duel remains one of the most enduring ever witnessed on the track and is lauded to this day as the 'Race of the Century'.
