Arkle

It is 36 years since one of the world's greatest racehorses, Arkle, won racing's premier steeplechase, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, for an unprecedented third time. This text tells the inside story of this horse's amazing career.

---

It is 36 years since one of the world's greatest racehorses won racing's premier steeplechase, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, for an unprecedented third time. But even at the start of the 21st century, this one horse has - uniquely in the racing world - retained truly mythical status. If people know the name of just one racehorse, it is likely to be that of the courageous Irish horse named after a Scottish mountain: Arkle. In 1966 Ivor Herbert, then distinguished racing correspondent for the London "Evening News", wrote "Arkle: The Story of a Champion", the inside story of this horse's amazing career: three Gold Cup victories, fabulous wins in racing's other top chases, the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown park and Kempton Park's King George VI Chase, and epic battles with his major rival, the courageous Mill House. His other claim top fame - and perhaps part of the secret of his success - was the obligatory Guinness his stable lad would provide him with after every race (and an extra one for a win).
Ivor Herbert's book went through many reprintings, was subsequently revised and reissued following Arkle's death, and is now re-published in a modern paperback edition for a whole new readership to discover the story behind the enduring myth.