Uncle Remus was a champion Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 racehorse who won the New Zealand Derby

New Zealand Derby

The New Zealand Derby is a set-weights Thoroughbred horserace for three-year-old, run over a distance of 2,400 metres at Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, New Zealand. It is held on the first Saturday in March, as the opening day of Auckland Cup Week. From 2009, it was run for a purse of $2.2...

 and New Zealand 2000 Guineas

New Zealand 2000 Guineas

The 2000 Guineas is a set-weights Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses run over a distance of 1600 m at Riccarton Park in Christchurch, New Zealand...

 in the 1977-78 season. He is rated among the best Derby winners of the last 30 years.

Uncle Remus was trained by Colin Jillings, who in his illustrious training career had five Derby victories, but it is probably fair to say that none of the other four winners had the same amount of ability as Uncle Remus.

Perhaps overshadowed by Balmerino, whose deeds in the Northern Hemisphere were constantly in the headlines, Uncle Remus was a great horse in his own right, as shown by his impressive record of 15 wins from just 28 starts.

Following his racing career he was reasonably successful at stud, but never sired a horse with anything like his own ability.