If you are old enough to remember Triptych, this article will bring back some wonderful memories. [Furthermore her name educated me!]

[Montydrum]

We're a bit blasé about globetrotting horses these days. Perhaps partly because travel seems to have become more efficient and also through pioneering examples that have proved it possible.   Unlike dear old Phar Lap, who went on his odyssey to Tijuana by boat, the likes of Magic Wand and Deirdre have virtually stretched time zones through the calendar year.   Triptych was not the first, but she became one of the most obvious early examples. Personal memories of the steely mare return this week ahead of the Coral-Eclipse as, back in 1987, I got the chance to see her in the flesh for the one and only time.   As only a child, I won't pretend I knew detailed accounts of her form and background but I was certainly aware that she seemed to run in everything, everywhere.   Triptych actually placed in three consecutive Eclipses, having been blown away by Dancing Brave a year earlier, her first season with Patrick Biancone in which she also won the Champion Stakes, ran in Dancing Brave's Arc, the Breeders' Cup Classic and Japan Cup, just for starters.   She arrived at Sandown on the back of wins in the Prix Ganay and Coronation Cup and it seemed to me so exotic that a horse who was trained in France and previously Ireland - landing the Irish 2,000 Guineas as a filly for David O'Brien - was also being ridden by the Hong Kong maestro Tony Cruz.   It was surely one of the great Eclipses. Mtoto, approaching the peak of his powers, outlasted the Derby winner Reference Point with Triptych, briefly caught in a pocket, looming into contention before looking a bit flat-footed and then charging again into third. Milligram, who had been brilliant in the Coronation Stakes, didn't seem to get home in fifth.   It may not be too surprising to learn that Triptych was third to Reference Point later that month in the King George, won an International Stakes, an Irish and English Champion Stakes as well as the Fuji Stakes in Japan.   I must admit I was reminded of Triptych again only very recently when Biancone came to Royal Ascot with a first runner since those halcyon days as Lennilu finished a fine third in the Queen Mary.    Biancone's reputation was substantially tainted by charges of dubious medication use later in his career. Her fans would prefer to imagine Triptych was not sullied from this and, anyway, it is perfectly valid to imagine she was so tough purely because her family was.

Nelson Bunker Hunt, the colourful Texan oil baron, bred Triptych and her dam, Trillion, who he raced with Edward Stephenson.    Trillion, a daughter of the powerhouse Hail To Reason, finished second to the unbeaten Wildenstein mare Madelia in the 1977 Prix de Diane and she later filled the same position in the Prix Royal-Oak.   The Kentucky-bred became France's best older filly or mare, dictating in the Prix Ganay under Lester Piggott before Piggott and Alleged got the better of her American pilot Bill Shoemaker when he was jetted in for the ride in the Arc.   Amazingly Trillion was third in the Preis von Europa a week later before Maurice Zilber sent her Stateside, as he had done with Bunker Hunt's exceptional Dahlia a few years earlier, and she ran respectably in the Washington International and the Turf Classic.   Were Triptych a human, you'd like to imagine her as one of those immaculately educated products from expensive lycées and international schools, speaking cut-glass English without any detectable accent of origin. Her father was probably a banker or a spy and she, in turn, a semi-professional skier, actress and model. Nowadays, natch, also an influencer.   When she was a yearling, the daughter of regal sire Riverman was bought for $2.15million by Alan Clore at Keeneland as he outbid Stavros Niarchos. When the owner later dispersed his assets, Peter Brant secured Triptych for $3.4m (probably around $9million today) and raced her in his green silks for one final season. Although her standards slightly faltered in 1988, she did collect another Coronation Cup and plenty more frequent flyer points.   It's well documented that many great racemares do not reach equivalent status through motherhood but having consecutive generations who demonstrated such tenacity surely suggests some inherited characteristics.   Tragically, Triptych herself will never appear directly in a modern family tree as she died when reportedly hit by a farm vehicle in the middle of the night, carrying her first foal by Mr Prospector.   Trillion did not produce a vast amount of offspring either but mercifully had a few other fillies to continue this sequence.   Triptych's unraced older half-sister, Trevilla, has had the most significant impact. Her daughter Trevillari, also by Riverman so a very close relative to Triptych, was no superstar for Alec and Criquette Head but produced Trevise, famously the dam of the celebrated dual Arc winner Treve.   There are quite a few females in this branch of the family and they are now so valuable their careers are tended with care. Treve, who could certainly be considered tenacious herself, had a Royal Ascot winner last year with Doha, who might just have more left to offer on the track, and the champion has a yearling daughter by Frankel still to come.   One of Trevilla's other daughters, Sine Labe, was the dam of the top sprinter of the late 90s, Tamarisk.   Triptych had two younger full sisters, too. Barger won a Prix Vanteaux in 1986 for Biancone and Bunker Hunt before finishing third in the Prix Saint-Alary.    Bankruptcy meant Bunker Hunt liquidated his assets and sold hundreds of his horses. Barger joined the Darley operation, producing the narrow Prix de Diane runner-up Baya. Among her descendants showing the same grit are Divina Grace, who won this year's John Porter Stakes at Newbury, as well as Tawqeet, the stayer who took the 2007 Caulfield Cup.    The youngest of Trillion's foals was Triple Couronne, who ran a couple of times for the Wildensteins and Andre Fabre in 1990. Her side spread far and wide and she was the granddam of Del Mar Oaks winner Amorama.   Those achievements go back to before Trillion, too. Her dam, Margarathen, was a 16-times winner in hot US handicaps and Trillion was a half-sister of Baronstown Stud's Doff The Derby, the unraced dam of the brilliant Derby winner Generous, multiple Classic winner and broodmare extraordinaire Imagine and Wedding Bouquet, granddam of George Strawbridge's fabulous Moonlight Cloud.   From Trillion to Triptych through to Treve. The word we're probably looking for in this family's case is tremendous.