Flyingbolt (1959–1983) was a famous racehorse. Officially, he is the second best steeplechaser of all time, behind only Arkle, who was ironically stabled just a few doors away in the same yard at Kilsallaghan, Co. Dublin where both were trained by Tom Dreaper. A comparison of their merits is probably best illustrated by the Official Handicapper, who at the end of the 1965–1966 season rated Arkle the superior by only 1 lb (0.5 kg). Timeform, the highly respected racing publication, had a difference of 2 lbs between them. However, whereas Arkle is feted and remembered as the greatest steeplechaser of all time, Flyingbolt has been all but forgotten. Over hurdles, he was the best Tom Dreaper ever trained, a long way superior to Arkle in that discipline, as evidenced by the fact that stable jockey Pat Taaffe could not ride Arkle in 3 of his 5 handicap hurdles because he was unable to do the very light weights that Arkle was set to carry in those races, and in two of which he finished unplaced when carrying just 10-1 and 10-5. Flyingbolt's wins included the Gloucestershire Hurdle at Cheltenham (now the Supreme Novices' Hurdle) and the Scalp Hurdle at Leopardstown (now the Irish Champion Hurdle). He also finished third in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Flyingbolt and Arkle never met on the race track, mainly because they were trained by the same man, and he preferred to keep them apart.
Background Flyingbolt was born in 1959 in unusual circumstances. His sire Airborne, the 1946 Derby winner, had become almost totally impotent by 1958 having only managed to get 3 mares in foal in each of his previous 2 seasons at stud. As a result, he was of little interest to breeders, so local man Robert Way gave him a home on his small stud farm where he housed a few mares of his own. Aware of his near non-existent reproductive history in recent years, Way put him into a paddock as a companion for the 19-year-old mare Eastlock, which he had purchased for 50 guineas at a dispersal sale in 1941. Eastlock, who was unraced, delivered 10 foals in 11 years for her new owner, but at 18 years-of-age and having failed to conceive in 1957, she was retired from breeding. However, her natural-born union with Airborne in 1958 resulted in the birth of a chestnut colt foal the following spring when she was 20 years-of-age. There was little to recommend the newborn in terms of his pedigree, with his sire being deemed a failure at stud and none of his immediate female line having ever set foot on a racecourse. Way sold him as a foal at the Newmarket December Sales for 210 guineas to Larry Ryan from Co. Clare in Ireland. After winning in the show ring as a yearling, he was offered for sale that autumn at Goffs Ballsbridge sales in Dublin through the Rathmore Stud owned by six-time Irish champion jockey Martin Molony, and was bought by George Ponsonby for 490 guineas. Ponsonby had already purchased a number of horses which went into training with Tom Dreaper. This one did likewise and was passed on to Mrs. Jean Wilkinson, who combined the names of his sire (Airborne) and dam (Eastlock) to give him the name Flyingbolt.
Racing career
Early career Flyingbolt made his racecourse debut on 13 May 1963 in a flat race over 12 furlongs at Leopardstown with Liam McLoughlin on board. Starting at 20/1, he finished down the field. He was still immature and needed more time to fill into his massive frame, so he was turned out into a field for the summer. His run at Leopardstown would be his only defeat for the next two-and-a-half years.
Flyingbolt re-appeared at Navan on 9 October 1963 when winning a national hunt flat race by 7 lengths at odds of 8/11 in the hands of top amateur Alan Lillingston. Coincidentally, Arkle won his only flat race ever on the same card half an hour earlier. Lillingston would later recall; "The lads in the yard told me he could really go. Halfway down the back not much was happening, so I gave him one crack down the shoulder and he took off like a jet plane."
After winning his next start on the flat at Leopardstown by 4 lengths with Liam McLoughlin in the saddle, Flyingbolt was switched to hurdles the following month, easily winning his maiden at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting where he was ridden in public for the first time by stable jockey Pat Taaffe, who was to ride him in all of his jump races whilst in the care of Dreaper. He then won the Killester Hurdle at Baldoyle, winning in such effortless fashion that he was allowed to take his chance in the Scalp Hurdle (now the Irish Champion Hurdle) at Leopardstown just 7 days later. He won eased down, defeating amongst others the previous year's Champion Hurdle winner, Winning Fair. The race was described by author and journalist Ivor Herbert;
"Flyingbolt, two years Arkle's junior, won the Scalp Hurdle in a canter. What made this astonishing was that the five-year-old was beating older experienced high-class hurdlers on worse terms than in a handicap. It was suddenly evident that Dreaper had not only Ireland's top three mile chaser, but, in the two years younger horse, the best novice hurdler either side of the Irish Sea."
From there, Flyingbolt headed to Cheltenham, where he easily won his division of the Gloucestershire Hurdle (now the Supreme Novices' Hurdle), consolidating his position as the top novice hurdler in Britain and Ireland. Later that week, Arkle beat Mill House to win the first of his three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups.
A summary of Flyingbolt's 1963/64 season is listed below.
Date Racecourse Distance Race Jockey Weight Going Odds Field Result Margin 13 May 63 Leopardstown miles Maiden Plate (Flat) L McLoughlin 9–12 Firm 20/1 19 12th 12 lengths 09 Oct 63 Navan 2 miles Bumper (NH Flat) Mr A Lillingston 11-9 Good 8/11f 17 1st 7 lengths 23 Nov 63 Leopardstown 2 miles Cabinteely Plate (Flat) L McLoughlin 9–10 Soft 9/4f 20 1st 4 lengths 28 Dec 63 Leopardstown 2 miles Maiden Hurdle P Taaffe 11–12 Yielding 8/11f 7 1st 3 lengths 08 Feb 64 Baldoyle 2 miles Killester Hurdle P Taaffe 12-4 Good 4/9f 19 1st 3 lengths 15 Feb 64 Leopardstown 2 miles Scalp Hurdle (now the Irish Champion Hurdle) P Taaffe 11-7 Yielding 3/1 15 1st lengths 05 Mar 64 Cheltenham 2 miles Gloucestershire Hurdle (Supreme Novices' Hurdle) P Taaffe 12-2 Good 4/9f 11 1st 4 lengths
Chasing career Flyingbolt was sent chasing in the autumn of 1964. He won all five of his starts, including the 2-mile Champion Novice Chase at Cheltenham (formerly the Cotswold Chase, now the Arkle Challenge Trophy) and his final start at Fairyhouse, where he carried to victory, giving the second horse 37 lbs. In doing so, he recorded his eleventh consecutive victory from twelve career starts.
Date Racecourse Distance Race Jockey Weight Going Odds Field Result Margin 21 Nov 64 Leopardstown 2 miles 1f Sandymount Novice Chase P Taaffe 12-0 Good 4/11f 4 1st 12 lengths 26 Dec 64 Leopardstown 2 miles Carrickmines Chase P Taaffe 11–12 Yielding 2/7f 5 1st 7 lengths 27 Feb 65 Leopardstown 2 miles Milltown Chase P Taaffe 12-7 Good 1/2f 8 1st 8 lengths 10 Mar 65 Cheltenham 2 miles Cotswold Chase (Arkle Challenge Trophy) P Taaffe 12-4 Firm 4/9f 13 1st 5 lengths 20 Apr 65 Fairyhouse 2 miles 1f Easter Handicap Chase P Taaffe 12-2 Good 1/2f 4 1st 1 length
Flyingbolt made his seasonal re-appearance in a handicap hurdle at the Phoenix Park on 2 October 1965, where he finished 4th when conceding 28 lbs and upwards to his rivals. Although he was beaten for the first time in more than two years, the race was primarily a warm-up event prior to the resumption of his chasing career, a sphere in which he remained unbeaten. That season, Flyingbolt won all six of his chases, ranging in distance from 2 miles to 3 and a quarter miles. He began with a victory in the Carey's Cottage Handicap Chase at Gowran Park, winning by 5 lengths, carrying 12 st 2 lbs and giving 32 lbs to the second horse. This was followed by a trip to Ascot in November, where he won the prestigious Black & White Whisky Gold Cup in a canter by 15 lengths (Chaseform: waited with, took lead 3 out, drew clear, impressive).
For the first time in 8 starts over fences, he started at odds-against for the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup at Cheltenham in December. This was his stiffest task to date as he had been allotted 12 st 6 lbs in the race and had to give 25 lbs and more in weight to his 10 rivals, most of whom were top-class handicappers. However, backed in from 5/1 to 5/2 favourite, Flyingbolt took the lead with 3 to jump before drawing away to win by 15 lengths. (Chaseform: took lead 3 out, drew clear, impressive). The Irish Field reported after the race: "There are many who thought that before the big race Flyingbolt was a little behind Arkle; while after his resounding victory they are in no doubt that he is as good." Pat Taaffe described the race in his autobiography My Life and Arkles:
The ground at Cheltenham had been very heavy when we arrived, but by the time of the race unceasing rain had turned it into a sea of mud. For Flyingbolt, with twelve-stone-six to carry, you just couldn't imagine anything worse...I had Flyingbolt settled down nicely in the middle of the field, relaxed, jumping superbly and biding his time.... Then, as planned, I made my first move going up the hill at the far end of the course and Flyingbolt, unleashed and free, began to fly through the field.... At the top of the hill only Solbina and Scottish Memories were still in front. Flyingbolt went past and away from them, a man running against boys. Rounding the final bend, he was going so easily that he found time to jump a path across the course. He stormed up the hill, increasing the distance between him and his pursuers with every stride, to win by fifteen lengths from Solbina with Scottish Memories third. It was the manner of his victory, rather than the victory itself, that caused the furore. Men remembered that Scottish Memories had met Arkle twice in the previous season and stretched him on both occasions. In this selfsame race, the Massey Ferguson, there had been thirty-three pounds and two lengths between them. And in the Leopardstown Chase, thirty-five pounds and one length. Now Flyingbolt had given him twenty-six pounds and left him sixteen and a half lengths behind. Didn't this prove that Flyingbolt was now every bit as good as his more illustrious stable-mate?
Official ratings were not published back in that era so the first indication of how the Handicapper had reacted to Flyingbolt's performance in the Massey-Ferguson came when he was entered in the Great Yorkshire Handicap Chase at Doncaster the following month. In the race, Flyingbolt was set to carry a stone (14 lbs) more than Mill House, runner-up to Arkle at level weights in both the 1964 and 1965 Cheltenham Gold Cups, which indicated that in official eyes at least, there was very little between the Dreaper pair. However, it was decided instead to stay at home and run Flyingbolt in the Thyestes Handicap Chase at Gowran Park, his first attempt at a trip beyond miles and where he carried the now customary top weight. He duly obliged, beating Height O'Fashion by a distance (in excess of 30 lengths) whilst giving her 28 lbs, with Flying Wild (who received 29 lbs) another 25 lengths back in third. (Form Book: close up, led and clear approaching straight, canter). By comparison, Arkle failed by a length to give 32 lbs to Flying Wild in the previous season's Massey Ferguson Gold Cup. Author, Ivor Herbert, remarked in his book, Arkle, The Story of a Champion, that "Flyingbolt slaughtered his field in ground so heavy that one fence had to be cut out and revived speculation about his rating with Arkle. And something the great flat trainer Paddy Prendergast said to Pat Taaffe after the race stuck in Taaffe's mind: "Flyingbolt has achieved far more as a seven-year-old than Arkle did at the same age."