Two years ago, then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho famously said: “The title race is between two horses and a little horse that needs milk and needs to learn how to jump. Maybe next season we can race.”
One of the two ‘bigger’ horses Jose was referring to was, of course, Arsenal, leaders of the Premier League at the start of February 2014. That particular race didn’t quite work out for Gunners fans, but those connected with the club have enjoyed success out on the racecourse in the past.
Alan Ball, member of the 1966 England World-Cup winning team and Arsenal midfielder between 1971 and 1977, was a keen racing nut, and part-owned Pic Up Sticks, who won the 2004 Emirates Airline Cup in Dubai in 2004.
Ball was also close friends with Mick Channon, the ex-England and Southampton forward who later went on to become one of the sport’s most successful trainers.
Irishman Niall Quinn, who started his career at Highbury before enjoying later success at Manchester City and Sunderland, has ventured into the business world since retiring, and manages several successful racehorses.
Quinn helped launched the Naas racecourse 2016 season and says his time at Arsenal piqued his interest in nags – he fondly recalls winning money on Gold Cup Day in 1987, after having been left out of a Gunners’ squad to face Charlton. If you think you’re in with a chance of repeating Quinn’s success at this year’s event, you can find out all the start times of Cheltenham Festival’s races for 2016 and check the odds online if you fancy a flutter.
That Arsenal side of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s under George Graham were the last of a dying breed – footballers who frequented pubs in the week and ate steak and chips after training – and the likes of Paul Merson and Tony Adams enjoyed a flutter on the horses.
This all changed when Arsene Wenger arrived at Highbury in 1996. Wenger, unlike his arch-nemesis Sir Alex Ferguson, has confessed that he’s no great fan of racing, and the modern Arsenal crop seem to share his view.
Russian flop Andrey Arshavin paid a visit to Ascot with his family in 2010 but – other than Ukrainian defender Oleg Luzhny, a player unkindly bestowed with the nickname, ‘the Horse’ – the Gunners’ most notable equine connection in recent years has been firmly tongue-in-cheek, with Ray Parlour, ‘the Romford Pele’, riding a horse named after old boss Wenger in a charity event at Kempton Park in 2010.
Arsenal currently have an injury list as long as the course at Aintree, and with England star Jack Wilshere on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, it might be worth keeping an eye out for him at this year’s Cheltenham Festival. Keep your eyes peeled and, in the meantime, bet on the JLT Novices Chase at William Hill – find great odds online for this year’s main event.
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