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Rekindling (foaled 23 March 2014) is a retired British-bred, Irish-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and active sire, who won the 2017 Melbourne Cup. After winning once from three starts in 2016 he developed into a high-class staying colt in the following year, winning the Ballysax Stakes and Curragh Cup as well as producing several good efforts in defeat including a second place in the Irish St Leger Trial Stakes and fourth-place finishes in the Dante Stakes and the St Leger Stakes. In November 2017 he became the youngest horse in 76 years to win the Melbourne Cup.
He was from the penultimate crop of foals sired by High Chaparral, who won Epsom Derby in 2002 and the Breeders' Cup Turf in 2002 and 2003. His other progeny have included So You Think, Dundeel and Toronado. Rekindling's dam Sitara showed modest racing ability, winning one minor race in Britain from eight attempts. As a broodmare she also produced Rekindling's full-brother Golden Sword, who won the Chester Vase in 2009. She was a great granddaughter of the French mare Faizebad (foaled 1962), whose other descendants have included Doyoun and Alexandrova.
At the end of 2016, when Wachman retired, Rekindling was transferred to the stable of Joseph O'Brien.
He was then sent to England for the Dante Stakes at York Racecourse in May and finished fourth of the ten runners behind the ill-fated Permian. In the Epsom Derby on 3 June he started a 25/1 outsider and was never in serious contention, coming home sixteenth of the eighteen runners. The colt was then stepped up in distance and matched against older horses in the Group 2 Curragh Cup over fourteen furlongs at the Curragh on 2 July and started second favourite behind the veteran Wicklow Brave. He produced a strong late run to overtake Wicklow Brave in the final strides and won by half a length. He returned to the Curragh in August and finished second to Order of St George in the Irish St Leger Trial Stakes over the same distance.
On 16 September Rekindling was back in England for the St Leger Stakes at Doncaster Racecourse and finished fourth, two lengths behind the winner Capri. Rekindling was then sent to Australia to contest the 2017 Melbourne Cup over 3200 metres at Flemington Racecourse on 7 November for which he was assigned a weight of 51.5kg. Although he was still a three-year-old by Northern hemisphere reckoning he was officially a four-year-old in Australia, where horses ages advance by a year on 1 August rather than 1 January. Ridden by the Australian jockey Corey Brown he started at odds of 14/1 in a field of twenty-three. After racing in mid-division he began to make steady progress approaching the straight. He produced a strong run on the outside, overtook Johannes Vermeer 50 metres from the finish and won by half a length, with Max Dynamite taking third to complete a 1-2-3 for Irish-trained horses.
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