Crowd favourite Tie The Knot is remembered for an amazing 13 Group one successes

Tie The Knot was an exceptional racehorse renowned for his remarkable ability to make late surges at the finish line, captivating Sydney audiences and evoking enthusiastic cheers for their beloved champion. The striking chestnut matched his good looks with his deeds on the track, recording wins in stakes races ranging in distance from 1200m-3200m and was voted the Australian Champion Stayer for the 1999-2000 season. Tie the Knot was a high quality gelding sired by the great sire Nassipour (USA) from Whisked by Whiskey Road. Nassipour was also the sire of Let's Elope (NZ), who won the Melbourne Cup, Mackinnon Stakes and Caulfield Cup. Tie the Knot, who was bred and raced by owner-breeder Sandy Tait and Jill Nivison, had 62 starts for 21 wins and 17 placings, earning more than $6.2 million prizemoney - the most by any horse in history at the time. Guided by Guy Walter at Warwick Farm who trained 36 Group one winners, one of Walter's greatest achievements was training the first three placegetters - Patezza, Court's In Session and Danni Martine in the 2005 Doncaster Handicap at Randwick. He was the first trainer in 149 years to achieve the feat. He started his training career on the New South Wales south coast in 1980. In the early 1970s Walter worked for Bart Cummings and Neville Begg and was the strapper of Think Big when the stayer won the 1974 Melbourne Cup.

Tie The Knot was a half brother to the stakes winner Dream Ballad by Singspiel (IRE) and eight other named horses.Their dam, Whisked, won three group races and almost A$550,000, including the VATC One Thousand Guineas. Tie the Knot won the Sydney Cup in both 1998 and 1999 and captured the Group one Chipping Norton Stakes in four consecutive years between 1999 and 2002. The popular gelding's 13 Group one wins included four successive Chipping Norton Stakes and two Sydney Cups, his first as a three-year-old in 1998. He lost a Ranvet Stakes on protest otherwise he would have had 14 Group One wins, the same as Kingston Town.

He retired from racing with a record of an amazing 21 wins and established himself as one of the greatest Australian champions of a generation. His total of 13 group one wins has been topped in Australasia only by Black Caviar's 15 wins, Kingston Town's 14 and is equal to Sunline's. The only other horses to better his number of Group one wins are Winx and American champions, John Henry with 16 wins and Forego with 14 wins. Tie the Knot was voted the 1999-2000 Australian Champion Stayer ran his last race when finishing fifth behind Ethereal in The BMW at Rosehill and the Sydney favourite was retired to his owner’s property on the Murray River near Gundagai. Tie The Knot, one of the most popular and best racehorses of the modern era died after suffering a colic attack in 2012. The esteemed trainer Guy Walter sadly died of a suspected heart attack in 2014 aged 59.

RACE RECORD - 62: 21-9-8

EARNINGS- $6,212,835

Gloaming Stakes; 1997

Spring Champion Stakes; 1997

Rosehill Guineas; 1998

Sydney Cup; 1998

Underwood Stakes; 1998

Mercedes Classic; 1999

Sydney Cup; 1999

Hill Stakes; 1999

Craven Plate; 1999

Ranvet Stakes; 2000

Mercedes Classic; 2000

AJC St. Leger; 2000

Expressway Stakes; 2001

Chipping Norton Stakes; 1999 - 2000- 2001- 2002

Ranvet Stakes; 2001