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I recently wrote to Taunton racecourse – my first port of call in my campaign to see more four mile races in the NH calender.
First of all my email is copied below,
Hello
As a keen racegoer I have travelled around the Isles to follow my first love – National Hunt. I’m a fairly young enthusiast, in my early thirties but despite my age I am very much a traditionalist.
I am therefore corresponding with those courses that no longer seem to hold marathon staying chases and asking the question why. I am no historian of Taunton racecourse but I do recall a certain winner of both the Aintree and Cheltenham Foxhunters (Cavalero) winning a Hunter Chase over a distance of 4m 2f and yet the four miler seems to have disappeared from your calender.
When you think that Ayr’s, Aintree’s, Kelso’s, Hexham’s and Uttoxeter’s flagship races are still over four miles and very popular to boot it does beg the question – why are we seeing less and less races over four miles?
Are there any future plans to reintroduce a marathon chase to Taunton and if not could it possibly be discussed?
My kindest and sincerest regards
I recently received a response which was thus,
The 4m 2 was dropped from our calendar about ten years ago for a variety of reasons. Mainly because the course at a little over a mile is too short for such a race and the few good horses were nearly lapping the stragglers. The situation was not helped by a fatality in each of the last two runnings of the race, one of them right in front of the Restaurant and in both cases the horses probably should have been pulled up earlier. We are also on very heavy soil and if we get “heavy” in the Going – fairly often these wet winters – the sight of really tired horses almost at a standstill, does little for the sport. I can understand your sentiments but with Exeter just down the road and probably one of the best chase courses in the country ( over 2m circuit) we should leave it to them. Taunton is a great course for the Novice hurdler but will never be a great chase course – sadly
John Hills MD
As I see it the first argument is redundant. If it was once viable to race over 4m 2f, then why is it not now?
I suspect fatalities are more frequent over two miles than over four and the fact that this happened in front of a restaurant is immaterial and lends nothing to his case against reintroducing a four miler.
If it is too wet in the winter then run it during one of their spring meetings.
And finally I find it astonishing that the MD of the course comes out and says that his course will never be a great chase course. I suspect with his ambition, or lack thereof, he may well be correct.
HAYDOCK are next on the hitlist! They’re probably worried about one of their fences getting a puncture!
I wouldn’t be too dismissive of the clay soil argument.
Gingertipster, I think, was writing on another thread about the affect that the soil (or subsoil) has on fatalities at Sandown.
I think that John Hills is spot on; one of my favourite races in the calendar as a youngster was the four miler at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, but there are less and less horses capable of competing regularly at the trip in good company and it’s not a pleasant sight watching horses with modest ability getting exhausted running in such races.
Owning a filly by Karinga Bay and out of a Zambrano mare I too would like to see more 4m+ chases. Along with 4m hurdles and 3m bumpers.
Well I for one very much enjoyed Jass running away with it at Donny on Saturday and as for the Scottish National – well that serves up a treat each year. Then there was Comply Or Die and Nil Desperandum running away with soft ground Eider’s. King Harald wasn’t stopping at Donny last year either. Who can forget McCoy’s never say die ride on Mini Sensation at Exeter? Fantastic stuff.
The New Years Day four miler is a moot point. My namesake won it and you use to see the likes of Knock Hill, Monanore and West Tip running in it year after year. And now where is it. It’s a 3m 2f race now. Although only over 3m 4f where on earth has the old Singer & friedlander gone from Uttoxeter’s card? Warwick no longer have a four miler (did they have the Oxo race?) and I just don’t understand why.
If I have to watch a horse fall I have to be honest and say I’d rather it be a slower tired fall on soft ground than an absolute somersaulting pearler in a two mile chase on fast ground.
A four mile hurdle – now that would be an interesting addition. I very much like that idea.
I am no historian of Taunton racecourse but I do recall a certain winner of both the Aintree and Cheltenham Foxhunters (Cavalero) winning a Hunter Chase over a distance of 4m 2f a
Ah, the Mitford-Slade Challenge Trophy! Sorely missed.
Mainly because the course at a little over a mile is too short for such a race and the few good horses were nearly lapping the stragglers.
A little far-fetched of John Hills, that. Why doesn’t the same thing happen in the Veterans’ National at Cartmel, where they really are going very close to completing four laps?
Taunton is a great course for the Novice hurdler but will never be a great chase course – sadly
That’s less far-fetched, in truth. Chases are so much the poor relation at Taunton that well over half of the fixtures there carry just two steeplechases.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Owning a filly by Karinga Bay and out of a Zambrano mare I too would like to see more 4m+ chases. Along with 4m hurdles and 3m bumpers.
Isn’t that the breeding of a top class polo pony?
The Haydock 4m Chase was the St Helens Chase and in the last running of it Him Of Praise was the victor.
I am amazed at Uttoxeters demize of staying chases in recent years as the Singer and Frielander went from 4m2f to 3m4f then 2m6f and is now a 2m handicap.
With that the old 4m2f Hunter Chase is now a 3m event.
Fair play to John Hills from Taunton to write back to you personally, as many probably would not care to do otherwise.
The Miles Gosling was always a highlight for me over the festive period and is much missed.
As for 4m hurdle races, maybe they can be looked at and would easily get my vote and might be worth having an experiment with.
I’ve got a racecard here from when we went to the Singer and Friedlander National Trial in 2000; not only was there a parade of Stallions [Karinga Bay slobbered all over my coat] but horses racing that afternoon included Young Kenny, Edmond and Earthmover..later in the day we saw Bindaree, Monsignor and Regal Holly in a novice hurdle [Whats up Boys was in the previous race]..we hardly go to Uttoxeter these days even though it’s only 40 minutes away.
Neil
I have mentioned the old scoundrel, Him Of Praise, in my email to Haydock and of course the magnificent Twin Oaks who also scored over four miles there all those years ago.
The Haydock 4m Chase was the St Helens Chase and in the last running of it Him Of Praise was the victor.
I am amazed at Uttoxeters demize of staying chases in recent years as the Singer and Frielander went from 4m2f to 3m4f then 2m6f and is now a 2m handicap.
With that the old 4m2f Hunter Chase is now a 3m event.
Fair play to John Hills from Taunton to write back to you personally, as many probably would not care to do otherwise.
The Miles Gosling was always a highlight for me over the festive period and is much missed.
As for 4m hurdle races, maybe they can be looked at and would easily get my vote and might be worth having an experiment with.
Haydock have a habit of butchering their best races – the Edward Hanmer, Tommy Whittle and Tim Molony were all edited/removed in order to stage the Betfair Chase, the One Man Novices Chase was lost too.
Would love to see them stage more 4m+ Chases at all courses and a few 3 1/2m hurdles wouldn’t go amiss either.
I remember attending Uttoxeter for the Midlands National a few years back (mainly remember for my dad’s 3 wins and a NR on a Yankee) – Ackzo won the big race, Paris Pike won the Novices Chase (a month before he took the Scottish National) and there was a decent mare from Murphy’s yard who took the Mares Final (I forget her name now but she ran in the old First National Bank Gold Cup the following year).
Great course and it’s a shame as I love the staying chasers.
I’ve got a racecard here from when we went to the Singer and Friedlander National Trial in 2000; not only was there a parade of Stallions [Karinga Bay slobbered all over my coat] but horses racing that afternoon included Young Kenny, Edmond and Earthmover..later in the day we saw Bindaree, Monsignor and Regal Holly in a novice hurdle [Whats up Boys was in the previous race]..we hardly go to Uttoxeter these days even though it’s only 40 minutes away.
I was at that meeting in particular and it was fantastic quality with some really good racing.
Why that meeting has been allowed to go so downhill into an average day is beyond me.
I actually talked with Lord Oaksey and ‘met’ Silver Patriarch and Terimon who, if I remember right was pure white by then and very pretty; when Karinga Bay slobbered all over me I thought I’d died and gone to heaven…
If i remember i think Double Trigger or Classic Cliche tried to take a bite from my jacket aswell.
…I am therefore corresponding with those courses that no longer seem to hold marathon staying chases and asking the question why….why are we seeing less and less races over four miles?
I don’t agree with the premis of your argument.
In the 1960s there were hardly any chases run over distances in excess of 3 1/2 miles. I can only think of the Grand National, Scottish GN, Welsh GN, Eider Chase, Whitbread Gold Cup and the NH Chase. As far as I can recall, there was pretty much nothing available for moderate or low grade horses
Neil Watson, 4 mile hurdle races would be an abomination imo. These races would require stamina found only in horses who’d need 5 miles plus over fences. They would be brutal affairs, just wearing extremely slow horses out, and offering little entertainment to the public, except perhaps those with a yearning for the 4 mile heats of 300 years ago. The proliferation of long distance selling hurdles over the last 20 years or so is bad enough.
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