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There is a Cheltenham Hall of Fame 3 pack DVD, that covers all the festivals going way back to the Arkle era, and upto recent years.
Very good indeed.
I think I got it from either the Racing Post shop or Amazon.
Good point Fisty, all three of his wins feature on a very rare Arkle video that I picked up for a fiver at Redcar one day so the footage is definitely out there. In one of them he quickened up unbelievably round the home turn and went about 30L clear, I think Peter O’Sullevan made some reference to a sports car in his commentary! Kauto Star is great but when you watch that you realise that he isn’t in the same parish as Arkle.
I remember Baracouda winning a handicap at Sandown one day and C4 then did a feature on great weight-carrying performances. Arkle’s win in the Gallagher was shown and I seem to remember them getting the late David Nicholson in to talk about it and he just couldn’t believe how Arkle quickened after thinking that he might have had him beat down the back.
FoF, at one time, no-one bothered saving anything celluloid for nostalgia or posterity. It’s a possibility that the races you mention may have gone forever. Archivists at the BBC continually lament that which was taped over, burnt or just thrown away.
I’m no fan of BBC comedy – patronising and overrated, most of it – but I’m told that ten or eleven early episodes of "Steptoe and Son" just do not exist anymore in any form. This wasn’t just confined to the BBC. The disappearance of the final three episodes of the first series of classic ITV sitcom "On The Buses", which introduced both Olive and Arthur’s bike, is considered a tragedy by students of comedy. These crucial episodes no longer exist and are believed taped over after being shown the once.
This was relatively common practice in those times, both for reasons of frugality (a primitive form of recycling) and because of the culture of "progress" which led to the destruction of countless architectural masterpieces in town centres everywhere in favour of office blocks.
Knowing the BBC, I would imagine the timeless Mill House races you mention may have become episodes of "Dr Who", or some early house prices show. I do commiserate. I’ve always fancied seeing Royal Tan’s Grand National, for some obscure reason.
Funny you say that Kwai, because the only Flyingbolt footage I can remember seeing is his attempt to win the Champion Hurdle having won the Champion Chase the day before. Can anyone on here remember seeing the great horse in action over fences?
This is the Arkle video that I have –
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arkle-The-Legend- … dZViewItem
But this is apparently being released this week –
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ARKLE-PORTRAIT-OF … dZViewItem
Exciting news!
Perhaps the fact that RUK are not showing any pre-1995 footage is because that was when the transition from BBC to Channel 4 was made, and there is some sort of contractual issue.
On the other hand, I can’t see how this can be a problem given that they regularly use archive BBC footage in their "Greatest Races" feature, and the fact that two years ago, prior to Aintree, RUK also showed every Grand National in full from the early 1960s to the present day (annoyingly, something they didn’t repeat in 2007).
RUK don’t have rights to old Cheltenham Festivals. The BBC holds rights to the Arkle era and 70s and 80s.
No, it can’t be anything to do with contractual issues because I’m sure I can remember them quite recently screening programmes showing all the Gold Cup’s & Nationals from the 70’s & 80’s.
A lot of this footage is now on YouTube.
I tried to get Portait of a Legend but when I contact them they say they did’t have it. I have tried Bit Torrent a million times and keep getting Sam Cooke
Very suprised someone somewhere hasn’t put it on a P2P like ares or something……not that I mind paying for it just keep hitting hurdles like sold out.
Thanks everyone for posting whats out there I will use the info and I’m sure I’ll get them……………U-tube is fantastic but they banned that here because of some idiot who put up something bad about the Thai King….there was ways round about it but thankfully the ban was lifted when the guy apologised…….he’s lucky he wasn’t here because if you want a quick death just stand out on the street and say something against the King and the first Thai that comes along will chop you up with the first thing he can lay his hands on.
Good point Fisty, all three of his wins feature on a very rare Arkle video that I picked up for a fiver at Redcar one day so the footage is definitely out there. In one of them he quickened up unbelievably round the home turn and went about 30L clear, I think Peter O’Sullevan made some reference to a sports car in his commentary! Kauto Star is great but when you watch that you realise that he isn’t in the same parish as Arkle.
Shhhhhhhh!!! Im hoping Kauto Star does the same thing to Denman
……I know that may be wishfull thinking but he is an awesome horse and I haven’t seen anything as good since Arkle at such a tender age.You have to think it’s gotta happen sometime…Although Peter O’Sullivan did say he was a freak of nature and we would probably never see the likes of him again and he was probably right.
That race is burned into my memory like it was yesterday and I can’t remeber what day it is half the time.
I wish some of the young people on here could see it though….maybe then when I say things like "Best Mate and Kicking King were just good horses who were the best of a bad lot". they would understand exactly what I mean.Of course if either Kauto Star or Denman win the gold cup and go on to bigger and better things they will be saying the same thing themselves over the next couple of years.
Believe this or not mate I picked Best mate out of the paddock and backed him at 12/1 when he won his first race at Cheltenham. When he was beaten by Barton at Aintree in heavy ground I said to Tim Easterby a few days after the race that Best Mate would win a Gold Cup. No one even thought he would get the trip at that time despite the fact he had won 33 novice chaces before Aintree………the Aintree race left me on no doubt whatsoever he would. The way he syaed on in that race in that ground I would have bet him to get 4 miles.
The next year I went to Exeter to to win his second chase there and I bet him the minute he was quoted for the Gold Cup and kept betting him right up until the day of the race………much in the same way I have with Kauto Star.
I have more reason to like the horse than most having followed him for his entire career but never once did I think of the horse as anything more than what he was. Even when Terry Biddlecome said he may be as good as Arkle I thought the man had totally lost his marbles.
The one thing that put me off ever saying Best Mate was a GREAT horse was his Gold Cup victories. He beat Commanche Run a couple of lengths in the first one much to my delight but CR was way out of form at the time and totally unfancied in affect he beat very little.
The next two were ven worse races beating Trckers Tavern best described as a boat with legs and Sir Rembrant by a measly 1/2 length.
Mate you have to look beyond the fact he won 3 gold cups……..he was racing against selling platers in comparison to Mill House who did to a good Hennessy field what Denman did to a bad one. Plus the fact Mill House was still in his prime when Arkle was stuffing him rotten.
If Kauto Star never won another race he would still be miles ahead of Best Mate in my book…….his win is the King George was the best performance I have seen in 40 years and against decent animals…….Arkle himslef would have to be at his very best to have beaten him that day IMO
Certainly wouldn’t have beaten him 20 lengths IMO he would have beaten Best Mate a distance.
Fist, I think you are being unfair to Best Mate.
You can crab Best Mate’s form all you like, but in 2002 he defeated two previous winners in Looks Like Trouble and See More Business.
.Now mate this is where you lose the plot…………SMB was no where near a shodow of his old self and started around 50/1 that day or some crazy price…..the horse had totaly gone………..Best Mate never beat Looks Like trouble……….Looks like trouble beat Looks like trouble……….the horse failed to finish the course.
That’s like Denam falling at the 3rd fence in race and 3 years later saying such and such a horse beat Denman which holds as much water as a bucket with a hole in it.
I’m only 21 but I make sure that I take the time to learn about/appreciate the histories of each sport that I follow. Therefore after hearing so much about him I just had to buy that Arkle video and I’ve also got the book that Sean Magee did on him recently.
Fist,
Like I said Kauto Star is a true great but I’m surprised that you think he would have made Arkle go in the King George. Wouldn’t Arkle have beaten the likes of Our Vic & Exotic Dancer by at least the length of the straight @ levels?
And Best Mate was my all-time favourite but its just ludicrous that we keep making the Arkle comparison. Again he was a great and he was just beautiful to watch but Arkle would have beaten him by a fence.
However, I still refuse to believe that KS would have beaten BM in his second Gold Cup. It might have been a poor field but it was a supreme performance and he was value for about 20-25L IMO and which other horse has won a good ground Gold Cup like that in recent times?
Fist, the Gallagher Gold Cup victory of Arkle’s has been shown. It also appears on the Arkle Video "Portrait of a Legend" although not in its entirety.
Unfortunately in the 60s Tape was very expensive so the broadcasters used to tape over programmes they thought had no historical value rather than but new tape for every broadcast.
The worst example of this is Flyingbolt – a few seconds of his Massey Ferguson victory are all that remain of his Chasing exploits on film. And these few seconds dont even show the finish!
The exploits of Flyingbolt in the Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle on consecutive days are both on the DVD I mentioned earlier in this thread.
When there is no racing on what do you want them to show? Weekend replays are as good as anything.
I wish some of the young people on here could see it though….maybe then when I say things like "Best Mate and Kicking King were just good horses who were the best of a bad lot". they would understand exactly what I mean.
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