Good horses abound in Australia, while the better invariably rise to the top to take out the cream of the races.

But it is the VERY BEST who reach the ceiling and push through. They step out of their comfort zone, defy the odds and keep winning.

Australia's Horse Of The Year title is about dominance and in season 2004/2005 one horse stood tall throughout the season and reeled off performance after performance.

That horse was Elvstroem.

Over the season, the four-year-old son of Danehill had 17 starts - all in Group company - for six wins, four placings, and four fourths.

Elvstroem's Group 1 record for the period is four wins, two placings and four fourths from 12 starts at the elite level.

His feature wins included the Group 1 Underwood Stakes (1800m), the Group 2 Turnbull Stakes (2000m), the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m), the Group 1 C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m), the Group 1 St George Stakes (1800m) and the Group 1 Duty Free Stakes (1777m) in Dubai.

Elvstroem didn't just win the race he was set for, he was in the finish of every race he contested for the season bar two, where bad luck was involved.

It is also fitting that Elvstroem joined the great West Australian galloper Aquanita, whom Aquanita Racing is named after, as one of only four horses in the last 50 years to win the Underwood Stakes/Turnbull Stakes double.

And Elvstroem dominated not only over his preferred middle distance but ran a game fourth in the Melbourne Cup on an unsuitable wet track before beating sprinters fresh-up at his very next start.

He raced at the top level from the very first week of the season until his retirement at the end of June and raced in five different countries in the last four months of the season.

He achieved more in a year than most do in a career and is the best performed and highest stakes-winning entire son of Danehill standing at stud anywhere in the world.

Some Elvstroem statistics.

• Elvstroem won Group 1 races from 1400m to 2400m in the same season.

Elvstroem, Nash Rawiller & Tony Vasil Aquanita has helped improve Australian racing’s standing on the world stage when the Tony Vasil trained Elvstroem made all the running to win the Group 1, $US2 million Dubai Duty Free at Nad Al Sheba. No other Australian runner has ever won a race at the Dubai World Cup meeting - Another Aquanita first. Click here to watch the video, RACE 6 DUBAI DUTY FREE - Elvstroem Courtesy of TVN.com.au

• Elvstroem and Makybe Diva have met six times in the season, Elvstroem beating her on four occasions.
• In more than 50 years only four horses have completed the Underwood/Turnbull Stakes double in the same season - Elvstroem, Northerly, Tobin Bronze and Aquanita.
• Elvstroem has been the only horse since the great Manfred in 1926 that won a Derby as a three-year-old (Elvstroem was actually two at the time) and backed up the following season and won the Caulfield Cup as a four-year-old.
• Elvstroem joined greats such as Northerly, Sky Heights, Lets Elope, Analight, Leilani, Sometime and Rising Fast to win the Turnbull Stakes/Caulfield Cup in the same year.
• Elvstroem joined outstanding horses such as Mummify, Northerly, Tristarc, How Now, Sobar and Gay Icarus to win the Underwood Stakes/Caulfield Cup in the same year.
• Elvstroem is the only Australian horse to have ever won in Dubai
• Elvstroem returned, on average, over $250,000 to connections every start for the entire season (17 starts).
• Elvstroem is the highest stakes-winning son of Danehill in the world.
• Competed on the International stage in Europe with distinction, with four starts - all in Group 1 company - against the best horses in Europe that is presently racing;
  • 2nd Group One Prix d'lspahan at Longchamp (1 mile) behind Valixir
  • 3rd Group One Prince Of Wales's Stakes (10 furlongs) behind Azamour (Only Australian horse to have ever competed in the Prince of Wales Stakes's Stakes)
  • 4th Group One Lockinge Stakes (1 mile) behind Rakti
  • 4th Group One Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (12 furlongs) behind Alkaased and Arc winner Bago

Elvstroem has represented Australian racing with distinction throughout his stellar career. It will be poorer for his departure from the racetrack but we look forward to his ongoing contribution to future champions of the turf by establishing himself as a super sire.

This would be a fitting tribute to one of the best horses to ever race in this country.