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Greetings to you all.
Are many of you old enough the remember the greatest steeplechaser ever seen,Arkle ?
He was my boyhood hero and I have an eight years older brother who was a Mill House fanatic stating his Champion was unbeatable,and,as Fulke Walwyn his trainer said,he was the greatest English trained chaser ever seen,bearing in mind he was associated with Golden Miller also,and he was visibly stunned when Arkle beat him the greatest Cheltenham Gold Cup race ever run on Saturday 7th March 1964,the last time Arkle did not start favourite for a race,and he went on to complete an astonishing record of 22 wins from 26 chases,never once unplaced,and with mitigating circumstances surrounding each of his four defeats.
He was unbeaten at the Cheltenham Festival with 4 wins from 4 races and that would surely have become 7 wins from 7 had his career not been curtailed by the cracked pedal bone he suffered in the 1966 King George when still aged 9.
Any of you with your own memories of this phenomenon who beat 4 other Gold Cup winners,including conceding three stones to the 1969 winner,What A Myth,when splitting him and the winner Stalbridge Colonist in the greatest Hennessy Gold Cup chase ever run,when he was conceding 35lbs to the winning grey also,and he went on to be beaten less than a length in the following Gold Cup ?
Nice piece on Channel 4 Racing last weekend where Nicky Henderson chose Arkle along with Mill House, See You Then and Frankel as his favourite racehorses of all time.
Absolutely, the Greatest; shame so few of his races available. And if he was around today, imagine him in all the WFA races!
Well said both of you…..WFA races would have been meat and drink to him and he would have won them all by 20 lengths and more…..Wyldesyde…I used to watch Rodger Wylde when he played for my favourite team Sheffield Wednesday back in the 70s…no relation ?
Meanwhile,my 5 fav horses I have seen of all time would be as follows ..
NH…..Arkle,Flyingbolt,Bula,Istabraq,Crisp
Flat….Sea Bird II,Frankel,Dancing Brave,Shergar,New Approach
Luckily,amongst that NH list I have included the 2 best ever chasers,2 of the best ever hurdlers,and the greatest Grand National performer,albeit only in one Grand National.
The Flat has always been far harder to call.
No relation i’m afraid.
Anyway, here’s two horses well deserving of a mention on any ‘tops’ list.
GRUNDY – Derby winner …. epic race with Bustino.
CAPTAIN CHRISTY – Gold Cup winner …..beat Bula 30 lengths in King George.
What more do you want!
Greetings to you all.
Are many of you old enough the remember the greatest steeplechaser ever seen,Arkle ?
He was my boyhood hero and I have an eight years older brother who was a Mill House fanatic stating his Champion was unbeatable,and,as Fulke Walwyn his trainer said,he was the greatest English trained chaser ever seen,bearing in mind he was associated with Golden Miller also,and he was visibly stunned when Arkle beat him the greatest Cheltenham Gold Cup race ever run on Saturday 7th March 1964,the last time Arkle did not start favourite for a race,and he went on to complete an astonishing record of 22 wins from 26 chases,never once unplaced,and with mitigating circumstances surrounding each of his four defeats.
He was unbeaten at the Cheltenham Festival with 4 wins from 4 races and that would surely have become 7 wins from 7 had his career not been curtailed by the cracked pedal bone he suffered in the 1966 King George when still aged 9.
Any of you with your own memories of this phenomenon who beat 4 other Gold Cup winners,including conceding three stones to the 1969 winner,What A Myth,when splitting him and the winner Stalbridge Colonist in the greatest Hennessy Gold Cup chase ever run,when he was conceding 35lbs to the winning grey also,and he went on to be beaten less than a length in the following Gold Cup ?
I was too young to be interested in racing when he was racing, but at HMV or any other good video store the a box set of horses with 1 video (DVD) all about him. I myself have a boxset of ten DVD all about flat and jumps racing, but the also a boxset of 6.
The others I have include Dancing Brave, Sir Ivor, Nijinkski, Mill Reef and Arkle as well as general Video on history of jumps and flat (both since 1900) , Greatest Ever Races (Flat and Jumps) and according to them the 12 Greatest Grand Nationals although last year renewal was after it was made, so isn’t one.
wyldeside, I remember both those horses well and actually met Dr Carlo Vittadini Grundy’s owner when I worked for British Airways and we had a good chat about him and Orange Bay the second best horse he owned.
Captain Christy,of course,was trained by Pat Taaffe,who said he was a terrific horse but still at least 2 stones behind the mighty Arkle !
His performance in destroying Bula there was every bit as good if not better than any of multiple King George winners Desert Orchid and Kauto Star’s performances as they never defeated a horse of that quality at Kempton !
RedRum77…Rummy was a truly great Grand National horse even though he was rather fortunate that Richard Pitman panicked on Crisp and hit him at the elbow which caused him to wander off a straight line and tired up the long run-in conceding 19lbs,whilst Andy Pandy would surely have won in 1977 but for, unfortunately ,slipping on landing at Bechers second time round when ten lengths clear and going strongly.
I backed all horses concerned so made a profit and Red Rum’s finest win was in 1974 when he did the National double also.
Pat Taaffe is adamant Arkle would have won the Grand National too if he went for it…his owner didn’t want to risk him because of the mayhem of fallers and loose horses, and ,it was ironic she made that comment in 1966 because we all know what happened there in 1967 !
Captain Christy’s 2 King Georges were of the highest quality, beating the outstanding Pendil by 10 lengths, then Bula by 30 lengths. Shame there are no videos.
The book about him "When Bobby met Christy," is superb, and at times uncomfortable. The great horse was treated very shabbily.
But still not within 2 stones of Arkle.Rummy was a truly great Grand National horse even though he was rather fortunate that Richard Pitman panicked on Crisp and hit him at the elbow which caused him to wander off a straight line and tired up the long run-in conceding 19lbs,whilst Andy Pandy would surely have won in 1977 but for, unfortunately ,slipping on landing at Bechers second time round when ten lengths clear and going strongly.
Was he hell lucky.
Crisp lost because he was absolutely knackered.
Why would Andy Pandy have surely won? Being 10 lengths clear that far from home means nothing in the National, you can lose 10 lengths easily just on the run in.
I’d just stick to bigging Arkle up rather than demeaning other great horses with nonsense like this.
Richard Pitman to this day still blames himself for Crisp’s defeat !
Andy Pandy went on to win the Whitbread Gold Cup Chase easily barely 3 weeks later and his jockey is adamant he would have won the 1977 Grand National also…watch the race again if you have any doubts…and he carried on riderless and had plenty left in the tank !
No-one let alone me has any reason to "big" Arkle up….everyone is quite aware of how phenomenal he was !
Richard Pitman to this day still blames himself for Crisp’s defeat !
Andy Pandy went on to win the Whitbread Gold Cup Chase easily barely 3 weeks later and his jockey is adamant he would have won the 1977 Grand National also…watch the race again if you have any doubts…and he carried on riderless and had plenty left in the tank !
No-one let alone me has any reason to "big" Arkle up….everyone is quite aware of how phenomenal he was !
So what a Pitman says overrides what is plain to see, don’t be silly. Listening to jockey talk after races is for the naive.
Again, what a jockey says is taken over what has been done many times before, a horse going too fast early in a National either stops as though shot or falls. Winning a few weeks later has nothing to do with staying the National trip after going too fast early, they are two separate dissimilar events.
You are clearly trying to run down the achievements of another a great horse. I’m surprised no one on here has pulled you up except me, you are talking complete nonsense about Red Rum’s achievements.
Stick to Arkle, not dissing other great horses.
I am not dissing other truly great horses !
Red Rum was a joy to watch around Aintree too,but even you must concede that both Golden Miller and Crisp put up greater individual performances there.
Assumedly,you also believe that Arkle would have won the Grand National had he run in it in 1966 ?
Red Rum was obviously not one of the greats ratings wise but great in his domination of the National. Many people forget he was also runner up twice.
We may at some point, may, see a horse that might get near Arkle, possibly Sprinter Sacre. I doubt though any horse will ever equal Red Rums 5 Nationals, winning 3 and finishing 2nd twice.
Its near on impossible to get a dual National winner nevermind 3 times and double runner up.
To give you an indication of Arkle’s dominance,he beat Freddie easily conceding him 2 stones and Caduval was over a distance behind him in the 1965 Gold Cup,yet both those horses carried top weights in their Grand National races !
The handicapper said that Arkle would have been set a weight of 14 stones plus,though of course 12st 7lbs was the maximum he could have carried, with everything else on 10st 7lbs and below !
The members of this august forum are well aware how good Arkle was; his outstanding career, the almost outlandish weight carrying achievements – both in victory and defeat, the 3 Gold Cups etc and of course, the 1m 6f flat race he also won during his chasing days at Navan – incidentallly, half an hour after his other illustrious stablemate, Flyingbolt, had won a bumper on the same card .
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