Ross Arnott

Thomas Ross Arnott, who rode as ‘R. Arnott’, was born in Carlisle on August 18, 1961. He was based with David Elsworth for most of his career and achieved his biggest successes on Elsworth’s classy chaser Cavvies Clown, the best horse he rode.

 His association with Cavvies Clown began when winning a Devon & Exeter novices’ hurdle on December 6, 1985 while still a claimer. The following season they teamed up to win two novice chases, including the Killiney Novices’ Chase at Ascot on December 13, 1986.

 Ross and Cavvies Clown scaled new heights the next season, winning the S.G.B. Handicap Chase at Ascot on December 19, 1987, and Newbury’s Mandarin Handicap Chase on January 2, 1988. They were easily the most important of the seven winners he rode during that 1987/88 season.

 In the 1988/89 season they combined to win the John Bull Chase and the Jim Ford Chase at Wincanton and finished in the frame in both the Hennessy Gold Cup and the King George VI Chase. They were fancied 8/1 chances for the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup but faded in the closing stages, being tailed off when refusing at the final fence. That was the last occasion on which Ross rode Cavvies Clown in a race.

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