Mill Reef (1968–1986) was a magnificent athlete who enjoyed a meteoric short career that was tragically put to an end by an injury.

The flat horse racer was owned by Paul Mellon, a wealthy American. In one year, Mill Reef won the Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the French Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Mill had a career that was filled with notable victories and over a surprisingly wide range of distances. He is known to have taken the Coventry S by over eight lengths. He took the Dewhurst by four, the Gimcrack by 10, the Eclipse by four, the Derby by two, the Arc by two and King George by six. He also took the Prix Ganay by an extraordinary ten lengths.

The brilliance of this horse was reflected in his Timeform ratings of 133 at only two years, 141 at three and 141 again at four.

It was appropriate that one of his most remarkable performances came in the Gimcrack S, a match named in honor of the eighteen-century star who stood more than 14 hands. Mill Reef fractured his near-fore at the end of August in 1972. A triangle of bone some two and a half inches long was found to have broken from the lower end of the cannon bone. Fortunately, an international veterinary team succeeded in saving him for a stallion career at the beginning of 1973.

Mill Reef went down with qualities of consistency, courage, soundness, superb action and an ability to act on any type of ground. He passed this streak to most of his sires. In his very successful stud career, his offsprings were amongst the winners (in 1978) of the Shirley Heights, the French Derby, the Acamas and the 1987 derby winner.

Mill Reef died in 1986 and was buried at the National Stud where a statue stands in his honour and memory.

The wag of a tail, the flash of saddles, and all of a sudden, the sight of a horse at the homestretch, leaving rivals winded. The story of the greatest racing horse of all time has been told and retold, and it never gets old. Arkle, who was simply referred to as ‘Himself’, was revered the world over and left fans of the sport bleary-eyed in each competition. Put simply, Arkle was a class act that never seemed to lose the sparkle. And decades after he left the sport, he is still the name on everyone’s lips.

The story of Himself started in 1957, when this bay gelding was born. Winning ran in Arkle’s blood, as he was the grandson of the highly prolific Nearco, who put together a 14-race unbeaten streak. Arkle’s owner was Anne Grosvenor who was at the time the Duchess of Westminster. Tom Dreaper was the trainer here, and Pat Taaffe rode him for much of his racing days.

Arkle’s story

Arkle had a long and illustrious career that only came to an end when one of his hooves gave. He was such an influential part of Irish racing that the organisers of the Irish Grand National came up with a two-forked weight system for races-one to be used when Himself was racing and the other when he was out. In the stretch between November 1962 and December 1966, Arkle romped home to victory in a massive 22 out of 26 steeplechases. He won three Gold Cups. He also put away the Hennessy Gold Cup two times. At 212, his Timeform rating is the highest ever accorded in steeplechasing.

Winnings

Arkle, the ‘King of Ireland’, won a great many races, but this happened decades ago, and sites like Racing Post did not exist back in the day. However, were we to take a conceptual look at the races and ratings, it would be fair to say that he won tens of millions of pounds in today’s terms.