Ahead of Galopin des Champs' bid for a third Gold Cup, John Ingles reviews the exploits of multiple winners Golden Miller, Cottage Rake, Arkle and Best Mate.
GOLDEN MILLER 1932-1936
While Golden Miller was the first horse to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times in the early years of the race, he didn’t stop there, going on to win it a record five years running, under four different jockeys, for his eccentric owner Dorothy Paget. He started early, winning his first Gold Cup in 1932 at the age of just five after only five runs over fences.
In those days, the Grand National was still the more important race, and the odds-on favourite for Golden Miller’s first Gold Cup was Grakle, winner at Aintree the previous year and finally expected to win the Gold Cup after being placed three times previously. But in a field of six, Grakle fell, bringing down another of his rivals, leaving the way clear for Golden Miller to win his first Gold Cup.
Golden Miller’s subsequent Gold Cup victories all came as a short-priced favourite, and he twice started at odds-on. While his fourth win in 1935 was the most closely fought of his Gold Cups – he had just three-quarters of a length to spare over Thomond II who had also been runner-up two years earlier – Golden Miller’s final Gold Cup victory saw his widest margin of success as he came home a dozen lengths clear, with a couple of Grand National winners, future and past, Royal Mail and Kellsboro Jack, finishing second and third.
Golden Miller was a Grand National winner himself by then as he had followed up his third Gold Cup victory by winning in then record time at Aintree under 12-2 and he remains the only horse to have completed the Gold Cup-Grand National double in the same season, but that was his only completion in five Grand National attempts. With the 1937 Gold Cup falling victim to the weather, Golden Miller’s bid for a sixth Gold Cup had to wait another year but, sent off favourite again, he was beaten two lengths by younger rival Morse Code in 1938.
COTTAGE RAKE 1948-1950
Ireland’s first triple Gold Cup winner Cottage Rake, trained by Vincent O’Brien, came along just after the Second World War. In contrast to Golden Miller who won his final Gold Cup at the age of nine, Cottage Rake was the same age when winning the race for the first time. At home, he had won a mix of eight races by then, on the Flat as well as over hurdles and fences, including the Irish Cesarewitch the autumn before his first Gold Cup. That Flat speed served him well over fences, with the stylish Aubrey Brabazon, who became his regular jockey, usually pouncing late to make best use of his turn of foot.
Making his first start outside Ireland, Cottage Rake was a 10/1-shot for his first Gold Cup in 1948. But, just like Golden Miller in his first Gold Cup, Cottage Rake was helped by the favourite failing to complete, with Cool Customer crashing out at the very first fence. The following season, O’Brien gave Cottage Rake a light campaign before his Gold Cup defence, with a warm-up in Ireland followed by the Emblem Chase at Manchester and the King George at Kempton, all of which he won.
Cottage Rake and a couple of stablemates (including Hatton’s Grace, himself the winner of three consecutive Champion Hurdles) made history by becoming the first horses to make the journey to Cheltenham from Ireland by air. However, with Gold Cup day frosted off, it was April before Cottage Rake could win his second Gold Cup, though Cool Customer kept on his feet this time and made Cottage Rake work hard to land the odds by two lengths.
By the time of the 1950 Gold Cup, Cottage Rake had a new chief rival in Finnure who had finished fourth the previous year but had since beaten Cottage Rake in receipt of weight in the King George. But with Brabazon seizing the initiative at the top of the hill in a slowly-run race, Cottage Rake couldn’t be caught and went on to win by ten lengths from Finnure. At the age of eleven, that proved to be the final win of his career.
ARKLE 1964-1966
Unlike his fellow triple Gold Cup winners, Arkle’s lasting fame isn’t entirely down to what he achieved at Cheltenham in March. Elsewhere, it was his numerous successes under huge weights in handicaps which have given Arkle legendary status in the sixty years or so since he raced.
Among them were an Irish Grand National and two Hennessy Gold Cups, three Leopardstown Handicap Chases and, at Sandown, a Whitbread Gold Cup and Gallaher Gold Cup, most of those victories with the burden of 12-7 and often conceding lumps of weight to chasers who could be considered top class in their own right. No wonder Arkle made the task of beating just a handful of mainly outclassed opponents on Gold Cup terms look so easy each year at Cheltenham!
But Arkle was the underdog for his first Gold Cup in 1964, or at least the challenger to the previous year’s winner Mill House who was odds on to retain his title. Arkle had been unbeaten in seven starts in the 1962/63 season, with his five chases including his debut over fences at Cheltenham in November and a return visit for the Broadway Chase in March, both of which he’d won by twenty lengths. However, in his first meeting with Mill House in the following season’s Hennessy Gold Cup, Arkle had finished third in receipt of weight after slipping on landing three out.
When they met again for the 1964 Gold Cup, only two others, including former winner Pas Seul, took them on. Mill House led for a long way but Arkle closed to challenge after two out and began to assert approaching the final fence before pulling clear to win by five lengths. There were just four runners too a year later when Mill House and Arkle were the big two again, but with Arkle having beaten Mill House again in the Hennessy in the meantime, it was he who was the odds-on favourite this time. He won accordingly too, coasting away from Mill House between the final two fences under his regular jockey Pat Taaffe to win by twenty lengths.
Mill House was on the sidelines in 1966 and Arkle’s third Gold Cup on St Patrick’s Day against four rivals was every bit the formality his odds of 10-1 on suggested, barring a heart-stopping blunder at the last fence on the first circuit. His winning margin this time was a record thirty lengths. Arkle was still only nine when he completed his hat-trick, so may well have won more Gold Cups had he remained sound. But in his bid to win a second King George at the end of 1966, he sustained a career-ending injury and finished second to Dormant, the distant runner-up in his last Gold Cup.
BEST MATE 2002-2004
Around thirty years therefore separated the exploits of the three chasers covered above, but only one other has joined the exclusive club of triple Gold Cup winners in the sixty years or so since Arkle. Many a promising jumper had since been burdened with ‘the next Arkle’ tag, including Best Mate, even before he’d run in his first Gold Cup, but his owner Jim Lewis was having none of it, saying ‘It’s more than a little unfortunate – it’s utterly stupid.’
A somewhat unlucky runner-up in the Supreme on his only previous Festival appearance (Timeform had called him ‘banker material’ for the following season’s Arkle which never took place due to the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001), the seven-year-old Best Mate had had just six races over fences before his first Gold Cup in 2002. Among his 17 rivals – more than Arkle faced in his three Gold Cups combined – was Florida Pearl who had beaten Best Mate on his first try at three miles in the King George. Sent off third favourite, the sound-jumping Best Mate quashed any stamina doubts with Irish outsider Commanche Court and the veteran 1999 Gold Cup winner See More Business following him home, while Florida Pearl, placed in the two previous Gold Cups, was a long way behind this time.
Best Mate was a King George winner too by the time he defended his title in the 2003 Gold Cup. His main rival from Ireland now was novice Beef Or Salmon but he was an early faller in what was to be the first of his five unsuccessful Gold Cup appearances. That left favourite Best Mate to be followed home by outsiders Truckers Tavern and Harbour Pilot, but he looked a class apart from his rivals in winning easily by ten lengths and was named Timeform’s Champion Jumper that season.
After another light campaign that took in the Ericsson Chase at Leopardstown this time, instead of the King George, Best Mate was sent off odds on for his third Gold Cup. While Best Mate duly entered the history books, it has to be said the 2004 Gold Cup was a substandard edition and light on numbers by modern standards too, with a field of just ten. Once again, it was outsiders who filled the places but Best Mate was harder pressed in a thrilling finish this time, Jim Cullotty getting him home with just half a length to spare over the Welsh National runner-up Sir Rembrandt with Harbour Pilot third again, another length and a quarter back.
Like Arkle, Best Mate had completed his hat-trick of Gold Cups at the age of nine but he too never got the chance to win any more. He was favourite for the 2005 Gold Cup when ruled out of the race after breaking a blood vessel on the gallops the week beforehand and he succumbed to a suspected heart attack on his reappearance the following autumn.
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