When the British trainer Fulke Johnson Houghton first saw the yearling in Kentucky, he described him as "all ribs, looking a right bugger",[3] but bought him anyway and brought him back to train at his stable at Blewbury in Wiltshire.
Ile de Bourbon began his three-year-old season by finishing second to the soon-to-be Epsom Derby winner Shirley Heights in the Listed Heathorn Stakes at Newmarket.
Ile de Bourbon missed The Derby but ran two weeks later at Royal Ascot, when he recorded his first important win in the Group Two King Edward VII Stakes.
Ridden by John Reid, he won by one and a half lengths from the Prix du Jockey Club winner Acamas and the Epsom Derby runner-up Hawaiian Sound.
Ile de Bourbon was made favourite for the St Leger at Doncaster but finished sixth of the fourteen runners behind Julio Mariner.
He was then sent to Epsom and won the Coronation Cup by three lengths from a field which included the leading French colts Frere Basile and Gay Mecene.