As a result, he was of little interest to breeders, so local man Robert Way gave him a home on his small stud farm where he housed a few mares of his own.

Aware of his near non-existent reproductive history in recent years, Way put him into a paddock as a companion for the 19-year-old mare Eastlock, which he had purchased for 50 guineas at a dispersal sale in 1941.

Flyingbolt re-appeared at Navan on 9 October 1963 when winning a national hunt flat race by 7 lengths at odds of 8/11 in the hands of top amateur Alan Lillingston.

The race was described by author and journalist Ivor Herbert; "Flyingbolt, two years Arkle's junior, won the Scalp Hurdle in a canter.

It was suddenly evident that Dreaper had not only Ireland's top three mile chaser, but, in the two years younger horse, the best novice hurdler either side of the Irish Sea."

Flyingbolt made his seasonal re-appearance in a handicap hurdle at the Phoenix Park on 2 October 1965, where he finished 4th when conceding 28 lbs and upwards to his rivals.

Although he was beaten for the first time in more than two years, the race was primarily a warm-up event prior to the resumption of his chasing career, a sphere in which he remained unbeaten.

This was followed by a trip to Ascot in November, where he won the prestigious Black & White Whisky Gold Cup in a canter by 15 lengths (Chaseform: waited with, took lead 3 out, drew clear, impressive).

By comparison, Arkle failed by a length to give 32 lbs to Flying Wild in the previous season's Massey Ferguson Gold Cup.

Flyingbolt just cruised past him, still on a tight rein, and from the second last we went ahead steadily to win very easily indeed with a tired Flash Bulb second, fifteen lengths behind."

Trained by Tom Dreaper, this unsung hero was held up by Pat Taaffe, cruised to the front at the second-last, and triumphed with breathtaking ease by 15 lengths from Flash Bulb, with another high-class rival, Flying Wild, third."

Taaffe explained in his book: "I ran him on the longer, outside route to minimize the risk of interference and coming to the fourth last we were sharing the lead with Tamerosia and Kirriemuir.

A few moments later, I glanced sideways and saw the white face of Salmon Spray poised menacingly at my knee and I think I knew that our race was won and lost.

In their race report, The Irish Field were prompted to say; "We are faced with the amazing and inescapable conclusion that, in theory, he is no more than a pound behind Arkle, and, depending on weather conditions, might even be slightly superior if they met."

During this period, rumours began to surface of the Wilkinsons' eagerness to take on Arkle in the following year's Cheltenham Gold Cup despite their trainer's preference to keep them apart.

In the Autumn of 1966, the British Handicapper released the weights for the 3 big early-season handicaps, namely the Gallaher, Mackeson and Massey-Ferguson Gold Cups in which both Arkle and Flyingbolt were entered.

There was no obvious reason for his surprise defeat but eventually exhaustive tests revealed that he was suffering from brucellosis, a seriously infectious bacterial disease, more associated with cattle than horses.

Within 2 months of Flyingbolt's setback, Arkle fractured a pedal bone in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park and never raced again.

Flyingbolt again ran in only 2 races that season, although he did win one of them when carrying 12 st 7 lbs to victory under Barry Brogan in a handicap chase at Haydock on 3 January 1969 (Chaseform: made all, comfortably).

Other than that, his most notable finish was a second in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on the eve of his 11th birthday, one of the few races in the calendar where he did not have to give lumps of weight away to the opposition.

His final start, for his latest trainer, Roddy Armytage, came as a twelve-year-old in the Topham Trophy Handicap Chase at Aintree on 1 April 1971 where he carried top-weight but fell for the only time in his career.

Despite not being the horse he once was, Flyingbolt left a deep impression on Armytage, as he explained to the Racing Post: "I rode him work one morning and just for a couple of furlongs you could feel what an astonishing machine he must have been.

Jockey Barry Brogan, who rode him to his final victory at Haydock, was Tom Dreaper's assistant and stable amateur during the 1965-1966 season and had ridden both Arkle and Flyingbolt in their work.

In a subsequent interview with the Racing Post in December 2008, more than 25 years after the publication of his autobiography, he re-affirmed his comments when he said, "For all Arkle's brilliance, I felt Flyingbolt was the better horse.

This would seem to tie in with the comment attributed to Pat in Ivor Herbert’s aforementioned book: “I suppose that one day Arkle and Flyingbolt will have to meet.

Brian O'Connor, the Irish Times racing correspondent and author of the 2011 book, Ireland's Greatest Racehorses, wrote of Flyingbolt: "It's hardly fair that such an immense talent is mostly reduced to a mere footnote in the Arkle story.

In 1964, Arkle had beaten Height O'Fashion in the Irish National giving her thirty pounds but this fella gave her forty, and beat her more easily.

In the sixties and seventies there were four big handicap races in Ireland: the Troytown at Navan, the Thyestes at Gowran Park, the Leopardstown Chase and the Irish National at Fairyhouse.

Some have questioned the validity of the Dreaper pair's sky-high ratings but the reason for them is simple: they were forced to demonstrate the full extent of their greatness by conceding up to three stone (42lbs) in handicaps to rivals who were of normal Gold Cup standard.

In comparing the two, he noted that "Arkle became a folk hero, celebrated in song, poetry, drama and legend, so it is hard to believe he had a stablemate who was his equal - but a strict assessment, crucially forged in handicaps, suggests that may have been true."