Arkle - 1965 Gallaher Gold Cup Sandown

One of Arkle's greatest performances when smashing the course record by 17 seconds carrying 12-7 beating Rondetto & Mill House by 20 lengths & 24 lengths conceding them 26 lbs & 16 lbs respectively.

[@2gther4ever]

I was a young teenager in the Arkle days. I loved him, he was and is the GREATEST!

[@Catherineone]

I have been racing for fifty years and I can tell you Arkle was the best horse I have ever seen by a mile. If you look at Arkle at the end of his races the thing that hits you is his power. When Arkle jumped a fence he looked like he was flying. I only wish he was running now at the top of his game as I would be having a few shillings on him to win the Gold Cup.

[@ASupremeOwl]

Arkle was a freak, An utter freak. To have to redevelop an handicap system just for one horse is his legacy. This performance here and to still hold the track record 45+ years later is unbelivable. The greatest without any shadow of a doubt, I doubt we will ever see anything as good as him ever again. He was paranormal...

[@karenblackadder9446]

Barbara Dyson

[@raymondgilbert7266]

That great big heart gave Arkle an enormous advantage

[@ThefightingCelt]

To give 16Ibs to a horse who had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup 2 years previously and 24 lengths beating - as well smashing the course record by 17 seconds is just mindblowing. Can you imagine Kauto Star trying to give Denman all that weight and such a beating. No, it would be impossible !

[@stevegrainger5824]

No argument, Arkle was the greatest steeplechaser there has ever been. He had no peers and the indisputable fact is that there has never been another chaser within a stone of him, with the possible exception of his stable companion and contemporary, Flyingbolt.

[@darrensmith4279]

Dont agree

[@Mike20216]

And 45 years on that course record still stands, and he did it with 12st 7lb on his back unbelievable!!!!!!!

[@alipitogen]

Looking at footage of Arkle is a similar thing to me to listening to J.S.Bach.You just have that secure, sure feeling that nothing can , could, or ever will be better, and also the privileged feeling of being a witness to the ultimate.

[@thomaslogue7773]

arkle was a phenomenon

[@brendanhayes1591]

Just an extraordinary horse.

[@FrightfulFiend]

The greatest racehorse that ever lived, even including Rummy........

[@mervyncharter]

The Only Horse that gets in the Argument with Arkle is the unlucky Flyingbolt. Some of his performances in the 1965/66 season were comparable to Arkle, as he beat some of the same horses Height of Fashion being one, giving similar amounts of weight in the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup & Irish Grand National in Heavy Ground. Some of Tom Dreapers work riders quietly felt that he could beat Arkle given the chance. If they had both remained sound the 1967 Gold Cup would have been the Race of the Century

[@DUCSDREAM]

1st and 3rd my favourite racehorses of all time.Greektown my 2nd.........

[@artexjohn]

The greatest.

[@elwynrichards185]

You can only feel desperately sorry for anyone who believes that any chaser since the days of Arkle comes within 21 pounds of that equine superstar. Realistically, Kauto Star, great chaser that he was, would have been in receipt of at least a stone; and as we all know would have been soundly beaten by Arkle.

[@alipitogen]

When the track record is broken, or should that be if ? it will not be by a horse carrying 12-7, because that does not happen any more. Anyone who looks at this and still questions Arkle's supremacy in racing history should be regarded as a member of racings equivalent of the 'flat earth society' and needs to get out of denial. The evidence is empirical, incontrovertible and never fails to reduce me to tears.

[@roberto4001000]

You are so right, Arkle was before my time, but there's no denying the facts and evidence he is the greatest there'll ever be ❤️

[@MrJoey1498]

what a unreal racehorse there will never be horse within a stone of him!!

[@DUCSDREAM]

Paul Orchid.If you think the horses that Desert Orchid were beating were better than those that Arkle saw off then you must be slightly dillusional.I have seen them all and NONE of them can compare with Arkle.By the way I liked Desert Orchid very much ..

[@1969JohnnyM]

He still holds the track record not Denman, Denman was a good horse but Kauto Star was a better horse, there records are'nt even close but Arkle was a once in a century type horse, remember his career ended just before he should have been entering the peak of his powers, even Peter O'Sullivan the great bbc race commentater of near 60yrs says he was the greatest steeplechaser ever, remember after near 50yrs when horses are'nt handicapped like they were Arkle still holds track records. Arkle ATG.

[@ThefightingCelt]

Arkle would have laughed at Desert Orchid.

[@alipitogen]

Tissueprices is right to say that Arkle could not live with todays horses -he's dead.

[@MrAddyginsh]

I think Arkle was the best in terms of achievements, but in terms of horses at their peak I believe Flyingbolt is the best.

[@thomaslogue7773]

He would be struggling today with the horses after all hed be 66 years old

[@TissuePrices]

@ThefightingCelt the horses arkle beat were not in denman class, there absolute shockers yes it sounds very impressive but put it in context, they were poor horses, even ted walsh says here that milhouse was a poor horse

[@fawltyoldboybasil.2178]

'TissuePrices', if you are going to quote Ted Walsh try and do so accurately. Ted Walsh does not say that Mill House was a 'poor horse' at any time. He remarks that 'Mill House had gone off the boil by that stage' - referring to the decline in form of the seemingly invincible chaser of '62-'63. Instead of continually trying to make a case for some other chaser being the best ever with the same tired groundless argument - that era was weak/poor/blahblahblahblah ad nauseum - just give it a rest. You are in the minority amongst broadcasters, journalists, and the racing public who happened to see Arkle during his lifetime.

[@GarthCowpe]

@TissuePrices It would be nice if you actually knew what you were talking about. No horse has ever carried the same weight as Arkle. Not before or since.

[@ThefightingCelt]

Ted Walsh is confused about Mill House - and Alistair Down has to correct him. Walsh wrongly thinks that this race is the Whitbread a few years later. This is 1965 and Mill House is still a force a to be reckoned with. A great champion he was, but he was made to look average by an equine freak in Arkle - the greatest steeplechaser of all.

[@edkaley1]

Hard to compare generations, but Arkle's record says it all - when handicappers have to adjust their system if he ran that just says it all. 50 years later he still holds the track record for the race. The greatest NH horse ever; Flyingbolt was nearly as good, but I am sure far more experts than me would not disagree with the fact that he was on his own and it will be a very long time, if ever, that we are graced with the presence he had.

[@MultiArkle]

Sorry but that is complete nonsense. Mill House had a shockingly poor record after his first defeat by Arkle due to a bad back. Rondetto did win a hennessy but it was 2 years later with only 10st1lb. The record was set by Mill House in a total non event then they stopped running races at the trip hence the record still stands/ As for Mill House after he was beaten in the Gallacher he won a nothing race at1/8 was well beaten in the Massey Ferguson, The Great Yorkshire Chase by a horse called Spear Fir. Despite alack of confidence in the horse he went off at odds against with only 11st9lbs on his back and managed to win the Gainsburgh Chase.He Fell in both the next 2 Gold Cups but Fulke Walwyn got him spot on to with the Whitbread in between but that was almost 2 years after the Gallacher. The truth about Arkle is he was brilliant but never a 212 horse. The only class horses he beat were Mill House and What a Myth. Others like the ill fated Buona Notte who would have beaten him pointless but for walking through the last at Cheltenham and Stanbridge Colonist who incidentally was the outsider of the field that day at 33/1 manged to beat him. Horses like Brasher, Height of Fashion, Ferry Boat who he beat giving lumps of weight would be tailed of in todays Gold Cup or King george. It's a great story but horses Like Dessie, Kauto Star, Sprinter Sacre (forgetting the trip) would have beaten him hands down getting the sort of weight his 212 suggests. example. Stalbridge Colonist on everything he achieved wouldn't be is the top 20 top chasers of all time which makes the rating a joke.

[@johnfarrell5075]

Walsh talked some shit during this and other interviews Just look at Mill house he winged fences galore he done his best to try and run Arkle into the ground but it was the brave horse that gave in first fantastic race and without doubt the one that gives Arkle Imortality status

[@johnfarrell5075]

@@MultiArkle Pure shite lad

[@roberto4001000]

@@MultiArkle I've never heard such tripe in all my life ....Arkle would annihilate kauto and Denman easily you waffling fool .

[@foriamonlyahorse11]

Not quite true. Desert Orchid carried weights like 12st 4lb, 12st 3lb, 12st 2lb in a better era. He gave 35lb to an improving National winner Seagram & beat him 16l as well as two stone to a G1 placed horse beating him 8l.

[@karenblackadder9446]

So glad they never met. By the end of the race one of them would have been dead. As it would have been with the ill fated Flyingbolt.

[@johnwedgbury6817]

Greatest chasing performances were by flyingbolt. Arkle great also.

[@dabrodrell]

TissuePrices is a troll-ignore him/her/it.

[@TissuePrices]

this is very impressive but you have to look at the context in which it was achieved, an incredibley weak era. i promise you all this, arkle could not live with todays horses. these experts admited themselves that it was a weak era.