Former star jockey Steven King recounts the day Lonhro snatched victory from Delzao in 2004 Australian Cup

Steven King may laugh about it now, but every year he gets a reminder of how he was denied an Australian Cup victory by champion Lonhro.

The soundtrack of a racing generation haunts former star jockey Steven King each year.

If not Greg Miles’s famous “Go Lonhro, Go” 2004 Australian Cup race call, “Lonhro, he’s coming, he’s going to get there, Yes! Lonhro won it!”, it is reminders from Wayne Hawkes.

“Every year I’ve got to go through it, every bloody year,” King laughed.

“Every year I’ve got to go through the same pain and I’ll probably never get over it.

“I was happy with the way my horse performed, it took a champion to beat us, unfortunately.”

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Hawkes was Melbourne foreman for father and Hall of Fame trainer John when champion Lonhro joined sire Octagonal on the Australian Cup honour roll with one of the most famous finishes in Australian racing history.

“The only jockey to get beaten by Lonhro and Octagonal in an Australian Cup,” King said.

“If you watch that (Octagonal, 1997) replay you’d swear I’d won it (on Gold City).”

Seven years’ late “Occy’s” son Lonhro denied Delzao from a seemingly impossible position.

Delzao travelled outside Lonhro in transit and sprinted clear when the $2 favourite struck a “dead end” behind Sound Action and Mummify.

King capitalised on the misfortune, or so he thought, and went for home.

“In all fairness, no one comes back from that,” King recalled ahead of the 20th anniversary of Lonhro’s remarkable feat.

“No horse comes back from that dead end run he got, he was completely stopped basically at the 250m-300m.”

Lonhro a generational colt and stallion, checked off heels, balanced up and nailed Delzao.

“I could hear the crowd roaring and they weren’t roaring for Delzao,” King laughed.

“I knew something was coming and I knew it could only be one horse.

“I saw him about 50m out, coming at me, and I thought I’ve given everything to Delzao and the big horse just put in the big massive strides and nailed me on the line.

“I wasn’t happy about it, but I don’t think I could’ve done any more to beat him.

“I couldn’t believe it … only champions do that and I’ve been lucky enough to be on some champions in my life.”

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King, a 54-time Group 1 winner, has the qualifications to speak about champions.

He completed the Caulfield-Melbourne Cups double on Let’s Elope in 1991 and won the 2003 Cox Plate with Fields Of Omagh, among other big race wins.

“I’ve been lucky enough to be on some good horses and they just don’t pick themselves up like that,” King said.

“It was a great race and I re-live it every year because it comes up every year … the fact Lonhro got up off the canvas, at that stage of the race, what can you say?

“Only a handful of horses are going to do that … I hated running second but if you’re going to get beaten you want to get beaten by these champions.”

Originally published as Former star jockey Steven King recounts the day Lonhro snatched victory from Delzao in 2004 Australian Cup