IN A CLASS OF HIS OWN
On the 50th anniversary of his death, has any other chaser matched Arkle’s legend?
JIM DREAPER was there the day Arkle ran his last race. ‘You could see two fences out he was struggling. It was as if he’d burst a tyre,’ recalled Dreaper of the closing stages of the King George VI Chase at Kempton on December 27, 1966.
Arkle had sustained a broken pedal bone when striking a guard rail in running but such was his courage, he continued under his burden of 12 stone seven pounds and was narrowly beaten into second place.
‘I was a jinx. It was my only time to travel to England to see Arkle race. I was in boarding school and opportunities were limited. I went with my mother (Betty). My father (Tom) was just as happy to stay at home,’ said Dreaper.
The ‘King George’ was Arkle’s 35th and final race. He was only nine years old.
For all that Arkle was given the best of treatment and time to recover, he subsequently developed arthritis, became increasingly stiff and eventually was unable to stand.
On May 31, 1970 – 50 years ago today – the decision was taken to end his suffering.
He was put down at Bryanstown, near Maynooth, where he had retired to in October 1968 – the farm was part of the estate of his owner, Anne Duchess of Westminster. His skeleton is now on view in the National Stud Museum in Tully, County Kildare.
‘After a long break, Arkle got back in training but was a shadow of his old self,’ said Dreaper, who remains a link to the greatest steeplechaser of his time, and arguably of all time.
Not one for hyperbole, Dreaper contends that Arkle was ‘better than anything since’, which places him above Best Mate, Kauto Star, Denman and Al Boum Photo.
In ratings, Arkle’s mark of 212 is the highest of any steeplechaser. Only one other has breasted the 200 barrier, and that was his feisty stable companion, Flyingbolt, who won the Champion Chase and Irish Grand National (12 stone seven pounds) a month apart in 1966.
Flyingbolt was struck down by brucellosis in the summer of 1966 and was never the same – a few months later Arkle sustained his career-ending injury at Kempton.
‘Over two miles, Flyingbolt was certainly better than Arkle. My father didn’t let them race against each other,’ said Dreaper.
Arkle won three successive Gold Cups and was never prepped just for Cheltenham. He usually raced once a month from late autumn until the spring. ‘Horses then were for racing and Arkle raced. He had a great appetite for battle.’
Whereas Al Boum Photo raced once between his 2019 and 2020 Gold Cup wins, a modest race at Tramore, Arkle’s season was never about building up for a Prestbury Park peak.
After his first Gold Cup success in 1964, Arkle turned out three weeks later to win the Irish National; after his second, he won the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown, which carried a bigger prize than Cheltenham.
With so few condition races for the elite chasers, Arkle took on all comers in handicaps, conceding lumps of weight to horses he’d have beaten by half a country mile off level weights.
He relished the hard yards.
On December 5, 1965, Arkle carried 12 stone 7 pounds to win the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.
A week later, he shouldered a staggering 12 stone 10 pounds when third in the Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
At Leopardstown, he won a novice chase over two miles, below his optimum distance, with all of 12 stone 11 pounds on his back. He was so good that the handicapper devised a system of weights for races with Arkle, and without Arkle.
Yet, Jim Dreaper reveals Arkle wasn’t always No1 with his father.
‘My father took a lot of convincing that Arkle was better than Prince Regent, who won the Gold Cup, the Irish National and went close in the National at Aintree under huge weights when those fences took a lot more jumping than they do today.’ At the beginning, there was little flashy about Arkle, who was bought in Goffs, Ballsbridge, as part of a trio for the Duchess of Westminster. The other two horses were Foinavon, and Ben Stack.
All three were named after mountains in the Duchess’ estate in Sutherland, situated in the far north-west of Scotland.
Arkle (787m) means ‘hiding place’ in Scots Gaelic, a place the equine machine never retreated to in combat. Dreaper never visited but his father and mother went once, by ‘private plane’, he recollected.
Foinavon, (spelt locally Foinaven) was the highest of the peaks at 911m and he famously scaled racing’s summit, the 1967 Grand National, where he benefited from a pile-up on the second circuit.
By then, he had left the yard at Greenogue, Co Meath, where Dreaper still trains.
‘He didn’t try. One day he fell at Baldoyle, and when Pat Taaffe looked back, he was lying like a dog on his side nibbling grass.’
Ben Stack was fast enough to win the 1964 Champion Chase for the Dreaper-Taaffe combination. As for Arkle, he evolved into a class of his own.
‘At the beginning, there was nothing which stood out about Arkle. He was well beaten in a couple of hurdles early on but after that summer, he came back a different horse. He was a late bloomer.’
Following his enforced retirement, Arkle had 18 months in Bryanstown before being put down, aged 13, half a century ago today.
His like, and his feats, may never be seen on a racecourse again.