Value31….Flyingbolt would probably be rightly p*ssed that you don’t class him in the same breath, looking at some of his handicap runs, there is an argument that he was even better (at the very least he was the far more versatile of the two).
Early in his career would see him win what is now the Irish Champion Hurdle, the Supreme Novices Hurdle (under 12-2) and the Arkle Chase (under 12-4) but it was his 1965/66 season that saw him do the following:
Won the 2m4f Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup (aka December Gold Cup) under 12-6 (giving away at least 25lbs). Following that win, had he ran in the next race he was entered for (the Great Yorkshire Handicap Chase at Doncaster the following month) the handicapper would have asked him to conceed 14lbs to……Mill House (who in the event of Flyingbolt’s absence finished 3rd under 12-7).
Flyingbolt’s next actual race would see him win the 3m1f Thyestes Chase under 12st beating Height O’Fashion by a distance (whilst giving her 28lbs), with Flying Wild (who received 29lbs) another 25 lengths back in third. By comparison, Arkle failed by a length to give 32lbs to Flying Wild in the previous season’s Massey Ferguson Gold Cup.
Won the 2m Champion Chase
Finished 3rd in the 2m Champion Hurdle (just 24 hrs after his Champion Chase win)
Won 3m2f Irish National under 12-7 again beating Height O’Fashion (by 2 lengths) and the previous year’s winner Splash, giving them 40lbs and 42lbs respectively. Height of Fashion is the link because Arkle had beaten her in the 1964 Irish National by one length giving her 30lbs.
Although his owner had mentioned taking on Arkle in the 1967 Gold Cup which wasn’t something the trainer of the two (Tom Dreaper) wanted but sadly neither horse would make the race with Arkle retiring after injury in the 1966 King George and previous to that (following a disappointing return to action), Flyingbolt was subsequently diagnosed with brucellosis, a recurring condition which causes inflammation of the joints. He was never the same horse again with the owners bouncing him between several new trainers over the years before retiring him in 1971 after he fell for the 1st time in his career in the Topham.
Had he been trained by someone else other than Arkle’s trainer Tom Dreaper, we most likely would have seen them face off in the 1966 Gold Cup and racing history may have been very different.