Arguably the greatest steeplechaser of all time, Arkle was owned by Anne Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, whose iconic yellow and black colours he carried to victory in twenty-seven of his thirty-five starts. His victories famously included a hat-trick in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in 1964, 1965 and 1966, and he remains, albeit controversially, the highest-rated steeplechaser of all time, according to Timeform.
Arkle was trained, throughout his career, by livestock-farmer-turned-trainer Thomas William ‘Tom’ Dreaper, who took out a public training licence at the family farm, Greenogue, in Kilsallaghan, Co. Meath in 1931. Dreaper first rose to prominence in the late Thirties, when he was sent four young horses, including 1946 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Prince Regent, by British flour tycoon Jimmy Rank. He was anything but a ‘one hit wonder’, but will always be remembered for scaling the heights with Arkle, whose hind leg action was initially so bad that jockey Pat Taaffe thought he would be a ‘slow-coach’, but was later revered simply as ‘Himself’ in his native Ireland and beyond.
