Arkle Chase

For many people there is no more thrilling sight in racing than good horses racing over fences at the minimum trip of two miles. We only have to wait until the second race on Tuesday for such a spectacle. For some once the ‘Arkle’ and the Champion Hurdle have passed the Cheltenham Festival has already peaked and settled into the quotidian.

The Arkle Challenge Trophy is for horses aged five years and older and is run over two miles and twelve fences. The race is for Novices, horses in their first season over steeplechase fences, or more properly horses which have not won a steeplechase before the start of the current season. It was added to the Cheltenham programme post-war as the Cotswold Chase and subsequently had its name changed to celebrate the Gold Cup hero of the 60s, though Arkle never actually won this race. The Arkle has proven a class event in recent times, being both a site of further glory for Grade 1 hurdlers (Moscow Flyer, My Way De Solzen, Forpadydeplasterer) and a launching pad for future Champion Chasers (Klairon Davis, Flagship Uberalles, Azertyuiop).

Relative to many other races at the Festival the Arkle has proven a tough for race for the Irish challenge to master. Forpadydeplasterer last year was only the second Irish winner in a dozen runnings going back to Ventana Canyon in 1996. Moscow Flyer, subsequently a Champion Chase and dual Tingle Creek Chase winner, won the Arkle in 2002. French-bred horses have amassed a good record here in recent years (as they have in most Festival steeplechases at distances up to 2½ miles). Voy Por Ustedes and My Way De Solzen were successive winners of Gallic origin in 2006 and 2007, while Azertyuiop was a superior winner, following up in the Champion Chase in 2004.