best-loved-horses sport horseracing Virgin Media
In a sport as money-driven as racing there ought to be no room for sentiment. But when horses as brave as these take win after win, your heart can't help but melt...
Experts rank Arkle as the best National Hunt horse of all time.
Between 1964 and 1966 he took almost every major honour in steeplechasing including three Cheltenham Gold Cups, two Hennessy Gold Cups, a King George VI Chase win, an Irish Grand National and three Leopardstown Chase victories.
The story goes that Arkle was so famous that fanmail addressed to him said simply on the envelope: "Himself, Ireland."
