St Paddy didn't run in the Arc. He beat High Hat in the Jockey Club Stakes easily a week before. The horse in 5th might have been Match III. The other 2 English horses in the race, Just Great (Piggott) and Tenacity (Breasley) finished 10th and 18th. St Paddy had one more run as a 4yo, and was disappointing in the Champion Stakes.

Match came over and won the KG&QE the following year. Right Royal beat him into 2nd in both the Lupin and French Derby as a 3yo.

Great that you saw St. Pauli Girl, I remember her, flashy chestnut as you say. I so wanted her to win the Oaks.

ged.. interesting article. Very observant of a French official, still rings true today.
"When the Russians figure they can win the Arc they'll invite themselves," which is the way they operate.

I remember Match, or Match III as I remember him.  Much made in the article of Kelso, the great American horse, but Match did beat him in the Washington Intl.

That was one great Arc in '61 and it's often overlooked.

I wasn't sure about St. Paddy but thinking back now, I'm not sure Noel Murless ever had a runner in the race. I can't recall any.

Murless did run Aunt Edith in the Arc, but I'm not sure he had any others. She went off fav in 1966, but finished 8th. The ground was very bad that year. He also had the american horse Hill Rise entered in the race that year until a couple of days before, but took him out because of the ground. The owner wasn't pleased, as he had travelled to Paris to see him run, and had sent him to Murless that year (as a 5yo) with the main aim of running in the race.

Busted was due to run in the race in 1967, but injured himself on the gallops not long before. Hopeful Venture was expected to run in 1968, but disappointed in his prep race in the Prix Foy (then the Prix Henri Foy).

The Russians did have a runner in the Arc, but they picked a bad year. They had Anilin in Sea-Bird's year. He actually ran well, and made much of the running, probably at too fast a pace, but still finished 5th, I think.

Ged, Hopeful Venture won the Prix Foy but was subsequently disqualified by the frogs. I believe that the Queen didn't want him to return to Longchamp as she was understandably furious. So was I, I had 40 quid on it.

Remember all of those Brian but so many more we could mention too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bar1ssbSmeI

I had a similar experience in 1968, I backed Connaught, but then along came the great Sir Ivor

Sea Bird for me was the greatest I have seen.

Thanks ged, I stand corrected.

I remember all our horses Brian but would struggle to associate Boismoss with anything, but the name does ring a bell.  Good call that one I think.  Remember old Sempervivum? I used to follow him.

Yes Anilin the great Russian campaigner, ran some good races, all over the place.  They also sent over Reljef and Griffel for the Grand National, neither got very far though.  I wanted them to do well.

Thanks for info on Murless's runners, I didn't know that.

https://mickeasterby.co.uk/racehorsedetails.cfm?racehorse_id=1282

Cheers driver   

Ryan Price will always be remembered for that era and who could forget Hill House and Rosyth.

Antiar, Makaldar and Frenchman's Cove.

You forgot Le Vermontois sparrow, it absolutely bolted up in the 1966 Schweppes

Very early memory of horse racing in the media:
Occasionally the Chester Chronicle had colour pics on the front page.  They had one after Major Rose won the Chester Cup.  I had yet to visit a racecourse, and what impressed me was the way the horses were strung out like washing almost to the home turn.  Though the camera angle probably added to this impression.
(I'd long forgotten this until I saw the name Major Rose on this thread.)

Bob Heaton owned Major Rose until he was sold at the Doncaster sales in 1969, for 16,000gns, when the horse was 7. Ken Wheldon then owned him until he was sold 2 years later at the same sales for 3,000gns to Des O'Connor. He then ran in the Doncaster Cup for O'Connor, but wasn't in the first 3 of 5, to Rock Roi. I'm not sure he ran again.

After Des O'Connor sold him , he was owned by a partnership. He went, as a 12-y-o I think, to Catterick for a moderate flat race (first for the partnership) but threw his jockey and was withdrawn. A previous owner (which could have been Bob Heaton) was so dismayed to see this great horse at this level, he paid the partnership what they had spent him on to presumably let him retire gracefully.

Yes, I didn't look hard enough. He did run in the Champion Hurdle trial at Wolverhampton as a 10yo for O'Connor, who had him with Denis Rayson. He finished 3rd in that to Coral Diver, but didn't have much behind him. He then seems to deteriorate fairly quickly, and appears for Steve Nesbitt, in the ownership of a Mr B Johnson - he did manage a 2nd of 7 in an ordinary Beverley handicap over 2 miles at 25/1, in July '72.