Hard Tack was a well-bred and talented horse whose racing career was cut short by his problematic temperament which made him difficult to train: he was awarded the § or "squiggle" symbol by Timeform for being unreliable and inconsistent.
On his final start of the year, Right Tack was sent to Newmarket where he won the Middle Park Stakes, one of the season's most important two-year-old races in which, ridden by Geoff Lewis, he defeated Tower Walk by half a length.
In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the year's best juveniles, Right Tack was given a rating of 131 pounds, making him officially the second-best colt of his generation behind the American-bred Dewhurst Stakes winner Ribofilio (133).
Ribofilio ran inexplicably poorly (there was speculation that he had been drugged[6]) and was virtually pulled up by Piggott as Right Tack, ridden by Geoff Lewis won decisively by two and a half lengths from Tower Walk with Welsh Pageant in third.
He overcame interference to win by half a length from Habitat in a particularly rough race, which led to the runner-up's jockey, Lester Piggott, being given a seven-day suspension.
An attempt to move up to middle distances ended in failure as he was beaten by Principal Boy in the Peter Hastings Stakes over ten furlongs at Newbury.
[4] In 1969 Timeform gave Right Tack a rating of 131, making him the equal fifth-best European horse of the year alongside Nijinsky and Park Top, three pounds behind the top-rated Habitat.