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National Hunt Racing
In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: hurdles and steeplechases. Alongside these there are "bumpers", which are National Hunt flat races. In a hurdles race, the horses jump over obstacles called hurdles; in a steeplechase the horses jump over a variety of obstacles that can include plain fences, water jump or an open ditch. In the UK the biggest National Hunt events of the year are generally considered to be the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Outline Most of the National Hunt season takes place in the winter when the softer ground makes jumping less dangerous. The horses are much cheaper, as the majority are geldings and have no breeding value. This makes the sport more popular as the horses are not usually retired at such a young age and thus become familiar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horse Racing In The United Kingdom
Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport in Great Britain, and one of the longest established, with a history dating back many centuries. According to a report by the British Horseracing Authority it generates £3.39 billion total direct and indirect expenditure in the British economy, of which £1.05 Billion is from core racing industry expenditure and the major horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival are important dates in the British and international sporting and society calendar. The sport has taken place in the country since Roman times and many of the sport's traditions and rules originated there. The Jockey Club, established in 1750, codified the ''Rules of Racing'' and one of its members, Admiral Rous laid the foundations of the handicapping system for horse racing, including the weight-for-age scale. Britain is also home to racecourses including Newmarket, Ascot and Cheltenham and races including The Derby at Epsom, The Grand Natio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheltenham Racecourse
Cheltenham Racecourse at Prestbury Park, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, hosts National Hunt horse racing. Its most prestigious meeting is the Cheltenham Festival, held in March, which features several Grade I races including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase and the Stayers' Hurdle. The racecourse has a scenic location in a natural amphitheatre, just below the escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at Cleeve Hill, with a capacity of 67,500 spectators. Cheltenham Racecourse railway station no longer connects to the national rail network, but is the southern terminus of the preserved Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. The main racecourse has two separate courses alongside each other, the Old Course and the New Course. The New Course has a tricky downhill fence and a longer run-in for steeplechases than the Old Course. Hurdle races over two miles on the New Course also have a slight peculiarity in that most of the hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chepstow Racecourse
Chepstow Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing racecourse, course located just north of the town of Chepstow in Monmouthshire, Wales, near the southern end of the Wye Valley and close to the border with England. It is one of 16 racecourses operated by the Arena Racing Company and is home of the richest race in Wales, the Coral Welsh Grand National. Track and facilities The track is a roughly oval circuit of just under . It is a left-handed undulating course, used for both flat and jump racing. The finishing straight is about in length, with five fences on the chase course to be jumped. There are eleven fences on a complete circuit. There is also a straight mile course. There were 31 fixtures in the 2022 calendar year including the two-day Unibet Jumps Season Opener with just under £400,000 of prize money on Friday 7 October and Saturday 8 October. This meeting featured the £75,000 Wasdell Group Silver Trophy (Handicap Hurdle) and the £50,000 Grade Two Unibet Persian Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welsh National
The Coral Welsh Grand National is a Premier Handicap National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Chepstow, Wales, over a distance of about 3 miles and 6½ furlongs (3 miles 6 furlongs and 130 yards, or 6,154 metres), and during its running there are twenty-three fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and it is scheduled to take place each year on 27 December. The race was first run in 1895, and it originally took place at Ely Racecourse in Cardiff. It remained at this venue until the closure of the course in 1939. After World War II it was transferred to Newport Racecourse in 1948, and it was then moved to its present venue in 1949. Dick Francis, the famous jockey turned author, rode the first Chepstow winner of the race, Fighting Line. David Nicholson, later a successful racehorse trainer, rode three successive Welsh National winners in 1959, 1960 and 1961. Origina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kempton Park Racecourse
Kempton Park Racecourse is a horse racing track together with a licensed entertainment and conference venue in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England, 16 miles south-west of Charing Cross, London and on a border of Greater London. The site has of flat grassland surrounded by woodland with two lakes in its centre. Its entrance borders Kempton Park railway station which was created for racegoers on a branch line from London Waterloo, via Clapham Junction. It has adjoining inner and outer courses for flat and national hunt racing. Among its races, the King George VI Chase takes place on Boxing Day, a Grade 1 National Hunt chase which is open to horses aged four years or older. History The racecourse was the idea of 19th-century businessman (and Conservative Party agent) S. H. Hyde, who was enjoying a carriage drive in the country with his wife in June 1870 when he came across Kempton Manor and Park for sale. Hyde leased the grounds as tenant in 1872 and six years later in July 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King George VI Chase
The King George VI Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of about 3 miles (4,828 metres), and during its running there are eighteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year on 26 December, and features as part of the course's Christmas Festival. The event was first run in February 1937, and it was named in honour of the new British monarch, King George VI. It was only run twice before World War II, during which Kempton Park was closed for racing and used as a prisoner-of-war camp. The two pre-war runnings were each contested by four horses. The winner of the first, Southern Hero, remains the race's oldest ever winner. After the war the racecourse re-opened, and the event returned in 1947 on a new date – Boxing Day. In the 1960s it was a handicap. The King George VI Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayr Racecourse
Ayr Racecourse at Whitletts Road, Ayr, Scotland,''British Racing and Racecourses'' () by Marion Rose Halpenny – Page 71 was opened in 1907. There are courses for flat and for National Hunt racing. History Horse racing in Ayr dates back to 1576, but the first official meeting did not take place until 1771 at a racecourse situated in the Seafield area of the town. This first racecourse was a mile oval with sharp bends. In the early days, racing was supported by the local landed gentry and members of the Caledonian Hunt. Important figures in the course's history have included the Earl of Eglinton, Sir James Boswell and the Duke of Portland. In 1824, Ayr's most important race meeting, the Western Meeting, was established and by 1838 it offered £2000 in prize money and the most valuable two-year-old race of the season in Britain. The meeting's feature race, the Ayr Gold Cup, became a handicap race in 1855 and is now the richest sprint handicap in Europe. Due to the small ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Grand National
The Scottish Grand National is a Grade 3 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Ayr, Scotland, over a distance of about 4 miles (3 miles 7 furlongs and 176 yards, or 6,397 metres) and during its running there are 27 fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race, and takes place each year in April. It is Scotland's equivalent of the Grand National, and is held during Ayr's two-day Scottish Grand National Festival meeting. History The race, then known as the "West of Scotland Grand National", was first run at a course near Houston, Renfrewshire in 1858. It consisted of 32 jumps, mainly stone walls. In 1867, after objections by the leader of the Free Kirk in Houston, the race moved to Bogside Racecourse, near Irvine. The inaugural winner at Bogside, The Elk, was owned by the Duke of Hamilton. During the early part of its history the race's distance was about three mile ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandown Park Racecourse
Sandown Park is a horse racing course and leisure venue in Esher, Surrey, England, located in the outer suburbs of London. It hosts 5 Grade One National Hunt races and one Group 1 flat race, the Eclipse Stakes. It regularly has horse racing during afternoons, evenings and on weekends, and also hosts many non racing events such as trade shows, wedding fairs, toy fairs, car shows and auctions, property shows, concerts, and even some private events. It was requisitioned by the War Department from 1940-1945 for World War II. The venue has hosted bands such as UB40, Madness, Girls Aloud, Spandau Ballet and Simply Red. The racecourse is close to Esher railway station served by trains from London Waterloo. There is a secondary exit from Esher station which is open on race days, this exit leads directly into the racecourse and Lower Green, Esher. History Sandown Park was one of the first courses to charge all for attending. It opened in 1875 and everyone had to pay at least half a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tingle Creek Chase
The Tingle Creek Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Sandown Park over a distance of about 2 miles (1 mile 7 furlongs and 119 yards, or 3,126 metres), and during its running there are thirteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in early December. The event was first run in 1969 as the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup before being renamed the Mecca Bookmakers' Handicap Chase and then the Tingle Creek Handicap Chase in 1979, in honour of Tingle Creek, a popular National Hunt racehorse in the 1970s. Tingle Creek had a particularly good record in races at Sandown Park, winning the Sandown Park Pattern Handicap Chase three times amongst his 23 wins over obstacles in Britain and, in 1973, taking the race eventually named after him. The Tingle Creek Chase has been a Grade I race since 1994. Prior to 1994 it was run as a hand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Punchestown Festival
Punchestown Racecourse is located in the parish of Eadestown, between the R410 and R411 regional roads near Naas, County Kildare, in Ireland. It is known as the home of Irish Jumps Racing and plays host to the annual Punchestown Irish National Hunt Festival. The racecourse itself is right-handed with an undulating hurdle and steeplechase track. The hurdle course is one mile six furlongs in distance while the chase course is 2 miles. Punchestown Racecourse also has the only cross country banks course in Ireland. As well as horse racing, Punchestown has hosted several music events, including the annual Oxegen festival which ran from 2004-2011 and then again in 2013, while AC/DC, Bon Jovi and Eminem are among the artists to have played sold out concerts on the racecourse. In 1982 Rory Gallagher played to over 16,000 people supported by U2, Phil Lynott, and Simple Minds. this was part of Hot Press fifth Anniversary. Dick O'Sullivan has been General Manager since 2003. Punchestow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galway Races
The Galway Races (Irish: ''Rásaí na Gaillimhe'') is an Irish horse-racing festival that starts on the last Monday of July every year. Held at Ballybrit Racecourse in Galway, Ireland over seven days, it is one of the longest of all the race meets that occur in Ireland. The busiest days of the festival are Wednesday, when the Galway Plate is held, and Thursday, when the Galway Hurdle and Ladies' Day take place. Festival history The first racing festival held in Ballybrit was a two-day event with the first race meeting on Tuesday, 17 August 1869. The summer festival was extended to a 3-day meeting in 1959, 4 days in 1971, 5 days in 1974, 6 days in 1982 and, most recently to, 7 days in 1999. The summer festival is the highlight of the business year for most local businesses as crowds and horses flock from all over the world to attend one of the world's biggest race meetings. The pub underneath the Corrib Stand, built in 1955, was for many years the longest bar in the world. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
