1. Nijinsky was unsparing in his demands for perfection.

2. For one thing, Nijinsky started life so excitable and highly strung that O'Brien warned his owner he might not be trainable.

3. The following season, Nijinsky took the Gladness Stakes on his reappearance and then won five successive championship races.

4. Charlie Chaplin danced like Nijinsky but better, because he was so much funnier.

5. Nijinsky and Nureyev also died young.

6. Nijinsky may have been the greatest Spectre de la Rose, Nureyev the greatest Corsair, but these two candles pale in the light of Jackson's blazing star.

7. The sire is one of the country's top Thoroughbred stallions and his sire was the great Nijinsky.

8. Skilful horsemanship overcame those problems, but then just 24 hours before the Derby, Nijinsky suffered a crippling attack of colic.