BY THE time Arkle lined up for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham on March 17, 1966, he was well established in the eyes of racing aficionados as the greatest chaser that had ever jumped a fence. It was more than four years since he had first run in Britain, when he won the Honeybourne Chase at Cheltenham by 20 lengths.

His reputation, founded on solid ground, then grew race by race until it was universally accepted that, on level terms, he was invincible.

Arkle, as imperious as ever on that St Patrick's Day, was a 10-1 on chance, odds that were merely a glimpse of the superiority he held over the rest. The fact that there were only five in opposition, two of whom he could have beaten pulling a caravan, was testament to the view of the racing world that opposing him on equal terms was futile.

Still, three of the runners were in there to pick up the place money prizes.

Arkle had reached this state of invincibility by dint of performances that had dwarfed everything that had gone before in the sport's history. There were records he had not broken and would not break, famously the Golden Miller five-timer in the Gold Cup during the '30s, but the probability is that the jump game had reached a new peak of quality after the Second World War. By the time Arkle came along the competition was of a high standard and the Gold Cup duly recognised as the pinnacle of the sport.

The facts and figures of the horse known as Himself, as he awaited the starter's release at Cheltenham aiming to win his third successive Gold Cup, defy argument. Overall, he had won 21 of the 23 chases in which he had run, and the two he lost were in handicaps.

Remarkably, in one of those two handicaps, the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, Arkle was receiving 5lbs from Mill House. This gives an insight into how highly regarded that Fulke Walwyn- trained chaser was. He had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1963 and been hailed as the new superstar. When Arkle blundered at the third-last fence at Newbury, Mill House was home and dry, his Irish rival managing only third place. Mill House was never to beat him again.

Arkle went on to win everything in sight, including the Cheltenham Gold Cups of 1964, when he beat Mill House by five lengths, and 1965, when he left his old rival trailing by 20 lengths.

He was so good that the racing authorities were forced to change the handicapping system: one compiled with Arkle and one without Arkle.

When he set out on that St Patrick's Day hat-trick bid, little did we know it would be his last Gold Cup. He won by 30 lengths, the biggest winning margin recorded for the race, but nine months later suffered a broken bone in his foot during the King George VI Chase at Kempton and was unable to race again. How he managed to finish second remains a mystery.

His steeplechase career record read: 27 races, 23 wins. The aim to win a fourth, fifth or even sixth Gold Cup had to be abandoned. Himself had left the course.