octagonal adj : of or relating to or shaped like an octagon [syn: octangular]

English

Adjective

1. Shaped like an octagon, in having eight sides and eight angles.

Translations

• Dutch :achthoekig

Octagonal is also an adjective of: Octagon

Octagonal (foaled 1992 in New Zealand) is a retired champion Thoroughbred racehorse, affectionately called the big O or 'Occy'. He was sired by Zabeel, out of the broodmare Eight Carat, a descendant of Man o' War who was ranked No. 1 on the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century.

Trained by John Hawkes, in 1995 Octagonal was crowned the Australian Champion Two Year Old. The two-year-old Octagonal won the AJC Sires Produce Stakes and earned a second placing in the STC Golden Slipper, and AJC Champagne Stakes.

In his three-year-old season Octagonal won seven times. But what was even more remarkable was the standard of his 3-year-old contemporaries. Saintly had already won the Australian Cup. (In the next season Saintly would win both the W S Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup). Nothin' Leica Dane had already been runner-up in the Melbourne Cup. While Filante would go on to win the Epsom Handicap in record time.

Octagonal's seven three-year-old victories started with the weight-for-age championship of Australia, the W S Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in his most dominant season. He went on to take out the 3yo Triple Crown consisting of the Canterbury Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and the Australian Derby in record time, and he is still the the last horse to have done so. Add to this a victory in the WFA Mercedes Classic marking his fourth Group 1 race win in five weeks. Already the earner of close to $A4 million, Octagonal was voted the 1996 Australian Champion Three Year Old as well as the Australian Horse of the Year title.

Octagonal continued to perform well in 1997 when as a four-year-old he collected his second Mercedes Classic plus further Group I wins in the Australian Cup, Underwood Stakes and Chipping Norton Stakes. Octagonal retired to stud after 28 starts with a record of 14 wins (10xGroup1), 7 seconds (6 in GI or GII races) and a third. He ended his racing career with a stakes tally of $A5,892,231, the highest of any galloper in Australasia to that point.

Octagonal stands at Woodlands Stud, NSW. He is the Sire of Australian Group 1 winning brothers Lonhro and Niello, the South African Group 1 winner, Suntagonal. In 1998 he stood at Haras du Quesnay in France where his most prominent offspring was Laverock whose wins include two Group 1 races: the Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris and the Gran Premio del Jockey Club at Milan, Italy's, San Siro Racecourse.

See also

• Millionaire Racehorses in Australia

References

• Octagonal's pedigree and partial racing stats
• Octagonal at Stallions.com.au

decagonal, dodecagonal, dodecahedral, eightfold, eighth, heptagonal, hexagonal, hexahedral, icosahedral, octadic, octahedral, octal, octan, octaploid, octastyle, octofid, octonary, octosyllabic, octuple, pentagonal, pentahedral