[2] As a two-year-old, Cox sent Bayardo to trainer Alec Taylor's stud farm and training centre in Manton, Wiltshire.

Bayardo faced setbacks the following season, due to a harsh winter that decreased training time and an accident on frosty ground which left him temporarily lame.

But problems arose again, this time when the favourite, Sir Martin, stumbled badly in close quarters and lost his rider and hampered part of the field, causing enough of a setback that Bayardo finished fifth, again losing to Minoru.

In the Gold Cup, Bayardo faced the Prix du Jockey Club winner Sea Sick II.

Sea Sick II was in the lead for some time, while Bayardo was held back in the field according to the race tactic of jockey Maher.

Bayardo continued his four-year-old season with a win in the Dullingham Plate, his fifteenth in succession since losing the Derby the year before.

In his final race of the season, the Goodwood Cup Bayardo was still thought to be the favourite despite the fact that he carried 36 pounds more than the three-year-old colt Magic.

But he allowed too much distance to grow between his horse and the other colt, so that when he finally gave Bayardo his head, he was unable to make it up before the finish, losing his sixteenth straight victory by only a neck.

However, his excellent breeding career was cut short after he contracted thrombosis at the age of eleven,[3] paralysed his hind legs and resulting in his death on 4 June 1917.