The one and only Arkle

I went to visit the National Stud and Japanese Gardens on Sunday - had a really nice time and there were pony rides for the kids etc. You can visit some ex-racehorses such as Moscow Flyer and Beef Or Salmon and there's also some well-known stallions which you can visit too.

In the horse museum, they have Arkle's skeleton and I've since been looking up some of his races. We've been going on about Kauto Star and Sprinter Sacre lately (both brilliant of course) but to put it into perspective, Arkle's Timeform rating is 212, compared to Sprinter at 192 and Katuo at 191. Amazing really.

It's probably hard for those of us who weren't around in his era to appreciate just how amazing he was but it's great to read about him and look him up on youtube to watch some of his races. If you are near the Kildare area, it's well worth a visit.

Myself and "Himself" :