The King George

I think its only natural, especially when discussion of Arkle often seems to (understandably) lack the specifics we're used to today - anyone can look up the Racing Post website and see that Kauto Star won a King George by 36 lengths from a decent field while Ruby Walsh had a cup of tea.
 
Like I say the Randall & Morris book examines Arkle's achievement and puts his performances in the context of other steeplechasers of the 20th century, while the Ruff's guides have the most detailed form (Phil Smith would have had to go to the library to get these, or asked me).
 
I'd be wary of time comparisons; they can be hard enough to compare on the same course on the same day, let alone 40 years apart.
 
As it turned out, not even the handicapper could limit Arkle's brilliance, a fact perhaps best demonstrated by reference to his performance in the 1965 Gallaher Gold Cup at Sandown. Having added that year's Gold Cup to his portfolio, he now faced his stiffest task yet, once more carrying 12-7 but this time conceding 16 lb to Mill House, the biggest pull in the weights his great rival ever received. Arkle surged to a 20-length victory, securing the lead from Mill House at the Pond fence before storming clear. At the death he had lowered the course record by some 11 seconds, establishing a time which has to this day not been bettered over the trip at Sandown.
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For me this point is the clincher. It wasn't only the winning distances or the huge weight concessions, he also broke course records, at least one of which still stands.
 
Grey said:
For me this point is the clincher. It wasn't only the winning distances or the huge weight concessions, he also broke course records, at least one of which still stands.
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Really? I'd give the winning distances and weight concessions far more, erm, weight than course records which can be the product of all sorts of weirdness (especially over jumps).
 
I find it exrtradionary that times for all races on the cards that Arkle ran on are not available somewhere. It's even more exrtradionary that someone has not looked at his form retrospectively and tried to use some sort of science to gauge it.
 
The course records on their own wouldn't count for much, but add them to the other aspects of his excellence and they provide a reference point the sceptics shouldn't ignore. He thrashed all the good horses of his era, and the clock shows that he did it by running very fast.
 
Gareth Flynn said:
Really? I'd give the winning distances and weight concessions far more, erm, weight than course records which can be the product of all sorts of weirdness (especially over jumps).
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I think the point here is that all of of these things taken together point to an extraordinary animal... one difficult to quantify by anything as mean as a rating.
 
SlimChance said:
I find it exrtradionary that times for all races on the cards that Arkle ran on are not available somewhere. It's even more exrtradionary that someone has not looked at his form retrospectively and tried to use some sort of science to gauge it.
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They have. Randall and Morris (in A Century Of Champions, Portway Press Ltd.) and Ruff's Guide to the Turf (as I might have mentioned) .:p
 
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