Racing’s wheel of fortune turns in Dreaper’s favour

FOR many people it is the romance of racing that is the attraction; of being part of – or merely witnessing – fabled stories which are ultimately woven into the very fabric of the sport and become legend.

As the successor to his father Tom at the family base at Kilsallaghan in north Co. Dublin, Jim Dreaper has himself been an integral part of racing legend as it was in this place that the greatest chaser of them all, Arkle, was trained.

Having taken over from his father in the early ‘70’s, Jim Dreaper added to the family legacy early in his career with the victory of Ten Up in the 1975 Cheltenham Gold Cup and also produced Brown Lad to win the Irish Grand National in 1975, ‘76 and ‘78 and it appeared then that he could possibly surpass even the remarkable record of his father.