Exceller

Exceller (May 12, 1973 – April 7, 1997) is widely considered one of the best horses to race in the United States not to win a year-end championship. Despite his exemplary achievements as a racehorse, and his unique accomplishment in being the only horse to ever defeat two U.S. Triple Crown winners in the same race (and only the second ever to do so in his career), Exceller is now remembered more for the tragic manner of his death and the horse rescue movement it helped inspire.

Background

Exceller was foaled on May 12, 1973 in Kentucky. Bred by Mrs. Charles W. Engelhard, he was sold as a yearling for approximately $27,000 to Nelson Bunker Hunt. Hunt's advisors figured that a son of European champion stayer Vaguely Noble with long and upright pasterns, would be better suited to European racing and sent him to France.

European racing career

Trained at first by Francois Mathet, who had been the trainer for François Dupré, and later by Maurice Zilber, Exceller didn't accomplish much racing as a two-year-old but blossomed as the distances got longer during his three-year-old season. While stablemates Empery and Youth were taking down the French and English Derbys, Exceller won in the grueling Prix Royal-Oak (run at 1 7/8 mile) and the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris. Shipped to England at age four, he wound up a half-length behind The Minstrel and Orange Bay in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and won the Coronation Cup. Sent to Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada, Exceller won the Canadian International.

Exceller 8

Exceller 8 is the title of a 1975 compilation album of music by Kraftwerk. It was released by the Vertigo label in order to capitalize on both the summer chart success of the single "Autobahn" and the imminent release of the next Kraftwerk album Radio-Activity. By this time, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider had set up their own record and publishing company, Kling Klang.

Background

The album is a sampler of material from the first four Kraftwerk albums – Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2, Ralf und Florian, Autobahn – and includes some versions of tracks that had been edited down for release on singles, such as "Autobahn", as well as simple excerpts from longer album tracks, such as "Kling-Klang". Only the pair of tracks from the Ralf und Florian album, "Tongebirge" and "Kristallo", are entirely free of cuts.

Track selection was by Alan Cowderoy (later an A&R manager at Stiff Records) and sound engineering is credited to Steve Brown, though it is unclear if they created the edited versions of the two tracks released as singles. The three-minute version of "Autobahn" (edited down from an original album length of 22:30) is the same as the three-minute UK single mix, which had been a top twenty hit in the UK. A different 3:28 edit, released in 1974, received considerable airplay in the US. "Comet Melody 2" failed to chart.