The Chair is a fence on
Aintree Racecourse
Aintree Racecourse is a horse racing, racecourse in Aintree, Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, bordering the city of Liverpool. The racecourse is the venue for the Grand National steeplechase (horse racing), steeplechase, whi ...
's National Course and thus is one of 30 that are jumped during the
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap ...
steeplechase
Steeplechase may refer to:
* Steeplechase (horse racing), a type of horse race in which participants are required to jump over obstacles
* Steeplechase (athletics), an event in athletics that derives its name from the steeplechase in horse racing ...
which is held annually at the racecourse near
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, England.
It is the 15th fence that the runners jump and is one of only two (the other being the 16th, the Water Jump) in the race to be negotiated only once.
Positioned in front of the
grandstand
A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...
, it is the tallest fence on the course, at , preceded by a open ditch on the takeoff side. The Chair is also comfortably the narrowest fence on the Grand National course, bar the Water Jump. The landing side of The Chair fence is actually above the ground on the takeoff side, creating the reverse effect to that at the
Becher's Brook
Becher's Brook ( ) is a fence jumped during the Grand National, a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England. It is jumped twice during the race, as the and fence, as well as on four other occasions du ...
fence, meaning the ground comes up to meet horse and rider sooner than anticipated.
Generally it is jumped fairly safely by most horses in the Grand National field, probably due to the lengthy run they have before reaching the fence, and because, by the time the fence is approached, most of the runners have settled into a smooth running rhythm. However, it regularly claims fallers, not just in the Grand National but other races held over the course. Perhaps The Chair's most notorious pile up occurred during the
1979 Grand National,
won by Rubstic. Two loose horses veered across the main body of the field and contributed to the falls or refusals of nine horses, including Kintai who was euthanised as a result of injuries sustained when he was brought down. For the following year's race, in which Ben Nevis returned and won having been one of the victims in the prior year's pile-up, channels were installed around the fence so that loose horses reluctant to negotiate the obstacle were able to bypass it rather than jump over it. There has been no equine fatality in the Grand National at The Chair since 1979, and only three at the fence since the race was founded in
1839
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The first photograph of the Moon is taken, by French photographer Louis Daguerre.
* January 6 – Night of the Big Wind: Ireland is struck by the most damaging cyclone in 300 years.
* January 9 – T ...
.
The Chair has also claimed the life of the only human fatality in a Grand National when Joseph Wynne, the son of former winning jockey Denny Wynne, was badly injured in a fall at the fence during the 1862 running. Although taken alive from the course to the nearby Sefton Arms pub, he died hours later, never having regained consciousness. Former winning jockey George Ede, who rode under the name Mr. Edwards, also lost his life in a fall at the fence in 1872, albeit not in a Grand National. In the
1964 Grand National, rider Paddy Farrell fractured his spine in a fall at The Chair. His plight highlighted the lack of support for jockeys who are badly injured in racing, leading to the creation of the injured jockeys' fund.
The fence has caught out numerous Grand National winners over the years, including Russian Hero (
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
), Ayala (
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...
), Rubstic (
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – ...
)
and Silver Birch (
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
).
The Chair receives its name from the chair once sited alongside the fence, at which a distance judge would sit when races used to be run in heats. Horses that tailed off too far were disqualified from later heats.
In the 19th century the fence was more widely known as The Monument, but this term began to fall out of favour during the 1890s, although it was still occasionally used in the press up to and during the 1920s.
Number of fallers
This table documents the number of runners which fell in recent Grand Nationals at The Chair, including those who unseated riders or were brought down, but not those who were pulled up, carried out or refused at the fence. The 2020 running was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
*Race void
References
{{Grand National
Grand National
ar:الكرسي (برنامج تلفزيوني)