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. A daughter of WHISKEY ROAD, Whisked won the Gr.1 Thousand Guineas in 1990 (beating multiple G1 winner TRISCAY), along with the Tea Rose and Light Fingers Stakes at Group 2 level.

Retired to stud, she was put to Nassipour in her second year, with the resultant foal being Tie The Knot. He 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. 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.

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 mighty stayer won the 1974 Melbourne Cup. Guy Walter described training Tie The Knot as a "life-changing experience.”

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 those successive Chipping Norton Stakes, with Shane Dye aboard for the first two, and incredibly, he won his first Sydney Cup 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. It was a shame he couldn't really go the Melbourne way round, but still won a Group 1 (Underwood Stakes) there and he was very unlucky when fifth in the Melbourne Cup (behind JEZABEEL in 1999). He went alright at Moonee Valley and Caulfield but for some reason, he couldn't get around Flemington.

In the Caulfield Cup (when third to TAUFAN's MELODY in 1998), he was just one run short. He was going to win at the furlong but he just knocked up got beat in the (AJC) Derby because it was a wet track and he wasn't solid.

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 bettered in Australasia, but he produced victories with such style, it's impossible to deny the impact he had on the sport before the presence of great champions such as SUNLINE, BLACK CAVIAR and WINX. Tie the Knot, 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