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.
