November 2nd, 2019 | 
Author: Thanks to all of those taking advantage of the horse racing tips offer. In answer…
Arkle
Even in his heyday in the early- to mid-Sixties, Arkle gained legendary status in his native Ireland, where he was often revered simply as ‘Himself’ or ‘The Champion’. Thanks, in no small part, to a Timeform Annual Rating of 212 – the highest awarded to any horse and 20lb superior to every steeplechaser, bar one, in the last five decades – his legend continues.
Arkle is best remembered for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running in 1964, 1965 and 1966. On the first occasion, he was involved in one of the greatest clashes in the history of National Hunt racing when he took on the reigning champion, Mill House, an exceptional steeplechaser who was, at the time, a poster child for the sport. Arkle prevailed by 5 lengths, beat the same horse by 20 lengths in the 1965 renewal and, in 1966, in the absence of Mill House – sidelined with back problems – beat the talented, but vastly inferior, Dormant by a record 30 lengths.
At that stage of his career, still only a nine-year-old, Arkle was widely expected to equal the record of five consecutive wins in the Cheltenham Gold Cup achieved by Golden Miller in the Thirties. Indeed, had his career not been cut short by an injury sustained in the King George VI Chase at Kempton later that year, Arkle may well have done so. Nevertheless, between 1962 and 1966, Arkle won 22 of his 26 steeplechases, with notable successes also including the Irish Grand National in 1964 and the King George VI Chase in 1965.
Unlike many modern steeplechasers, Arkle regularly tested his mettle in handicap company, often conceding two stone, or more, to his rivals. In that sphere, he won the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in 1964 and 1965 and the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown in 1965, carrying 12st 7lb on all three occasions. Arguably his best weight-carrying performance was also at Sandown, in the Gallaher Gold Cup in 1965, where he beat his old rival Mill House, who was receiving 16lb, by 20 lengths in effortless fashion and smashed the track record by 17 seconds in the process.