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Toay’s events make this topical, but we don’t need to focus just on the loss of Granit Jack to believe that the second last fence on the Old Course is unsatisfactory.
Over the last few years, far too many horses have either fallen there, slithered along the ground on landing, been hampered, or unseated their riders. Apart from the potential risks to horses and jockeys, races are basically being decided by the errors at that fence and the number of incidents there is far greater than at any other fence on the course.
Just think back to the last running of the Arkle – My Way De Solzen hit the fence hard but stayed upright. Don’t Push It and Twist Magic both seemed to jump the fence cleanly, but both capsized on landing. Is that really how we want a championship race decided?
OK, whinge over, what can be done – well I think there is radical, but basically simple solution to the problem.
Cheltenham currently stage 16 days racing each season between October and the end of April, far fewer than many smaller country tracks. So why do they need two separate courses?
Rather than fiddling with positioning of the second last on the Old Course, simply move all chases at Cheltenham to the New Course. The fences could be made much wider and dolled off to provide fresh ground as necessary and we’d have a much better and fairer track with a longer home straight and an easier bend into that straight.
Then run all the hurdle races on the current Old Course, which would allow Cheltenham to move the hurdles across the full width of the track to provide fresh ground.
In effect, hurdle races would use the inner loop, chases the outer loop at all meetings. As a useful by product, this would also do away with the hurdle races on the New Course, with the very long run from the second last that is equally unsatisfactory for chamionship races.
How about it Mr Gillespie – a spot of lateral thinking could provide a better and safer spectacle at every meeting.
AP
Interesting stuff as always Alan (just like your thread about the novice hurdler penalty structure).
My own personal opinion is if the fence is dangerous then it should be removed. Otherwise leave well enough alone.
You really have a bee in your bonnet about that hurdle course!!!
I’ve thought for a long while that something should be done about the second last fence on the old course. It’s simply too unsafe for horses to jump and I agree totally with AP’s comments regarding the problems caused by this fence.
At first glance I can’t see anything wrong with what is being suggested even though it may be too radical for the Cheltenham management but let’s hope that something is done sooner than later.
Perhaps AP can write to the RP with his suggestion to try and get this problem noticed ? I am confident that the RP would print his letter ( they always print my letters so they are not fussy ).
Well done AP. Let’s hope Cheltenham listen. Many years ago when the third from home witnessed several casualties, Cheltenham acted and worked with the RSPCA to create a stretch of flat ground after the fence before resuming the down hill section.
Alan’s idea is very well thought out. I hope some of the proposals can be incorporated into a sensible solution.
How about it Mr Gillespie – a spot of lateral thinking could provide a better and safer spectacle at every meeting.
AP
..I see their website is down [unsurprisingly]. May I ask Alan, is this a copy of a letter/email that you’ve sent them and have you written them before by any chance? I’m still waiting for a reply although I don’t expect to get one.
I have to agree that something should be done about this fence. I’d be interested to see what the attrition rate is at this obstacle compared to the others. Slightly OT but seeing as someone mentioned him whatever happened to Vinnie Keane? He seems to have disappeared off the radar, I’ll never forget him throwing himself headlong into the ground when Latalomne fell.
Having known Edward Gillespie even before he joined Cheltenham, I can approach him on first name terms and will do so on this issue.
He’ll probably deny that I first suggested adding a mares race to the Festival more than ten years ago, but all good ideas get adopted in the end!
Mind you, I’m still working on getting the Stayers (World) hurdle back over a proper staying trip and that campaign has been going on since 1994!
Thanks for the responses,
AP
Like Alan, I’ve known him for sometime. If I see him tomorrow I will raise this issue.
Well done guys. I don’t agree with some things that they’ve done recently (ticket prices etc) but Cheltenham do seem to be really keen to do what’s best for the horse so hopefully we’ll get a positive response.
It certainly is about time that it was looked it. A debate is raging on another forum tonight and that tends to be the view of the majority. Don’t know how they’d go about it with the gradients but we’ve seen far too many horses come down there over the years so hopefully some good will come out of a bad day. I remember Farmer Jack taking a pearler there one day and surely dear old Redemption must have at some stage…
Amazing topic and nice to see people care.
The 2nd last fence at any course is probably the most dangerous of all.
However, It doesn’t always mean the fence is not up to standard.
Horses are just beginning to hit top speed or tire, so you tend to get more fallers/accidents.
I would have thought they took that into consideration when they deemed it to be safe or not.
Not saying you guys are wrong, but the jockeys are the best judges of whether a fence is safe or not.
As a matter of interest, has there been any such reports lately regading this fence where jockeys have lodged complaints?
An excellent suggestion AP- but you’re 100/1 to get the powers that be to agree- remember their biggest sponsors are bookmakers! (BTW I reckon Paddy Power could have been out 1/2m with their money back on fallers today with Granit and Willywoody….)
I thought your horse ran well in the opener too (presumption, unless you have a namesake)Are there significantly more fallers at this fence than any other AP?
Stats analysis would probably show course management something needs addressing and if you can produce this type of data, it would maybe give your idea for change extra weight
CH
I do have a namesake, the owner of a mining equipment company that made millions by inventing something called a sizer, hence the names he gives his horses.
I’m told he gets annoyed at being asked for tips! Confusion has been commonplace since he bought his first horse after a seller at Lingfield. The course phoned me two days later to ask how I planned to pay! Then a few years ago, one of his horses won at Wolverhampton after being backed in from 33/1 and ATR congratulated me on landing a gamble.
It’s a measure of the difference in our fortunes that the other AP was involved in a fraud case in which a pension fund manager stole £1.6M and lost the lot on Betfair – over 80% of the money came from the pensions savings of Alan Potts. To add to the coincidences, the fraudster was called Andrew Petrie and as a sideline he ran a betting shop called AP Turf.
EW,
I don’t know the precise stats, but it isn’t just the fallers, it’s the ones that lose all chance at that fence by sprawling on landing but still go on to finish. I’ll do some digging later today. For a fence that is only jumped on seven days per year, it certainly seems to have built up a considerable fund of memories amongst TRF members.
AP
CH
EW,
I don’t know the precise stats, but it isn’t just the fallers, it’s the ones that lose all chance at that fence by sprawling on landing but still go on to finish.
AP
If you can show plenty of evidence for the above AP, i think you may have a good weapon to go to war with
AP .. I agree. Its no good for the sport’s image to have fences that prove to be too awkward for tired horses to jump without risking serious injury.
EW’s idea of providing some sort of statistical proof sounds like the way to go, it would be very difficult to argue with presented in that manner.
What`s irritating with this fence , horses usually jump it clean enough but for some reason capsize or sprawl on landing, if you look at the undulations on this part of the course you could argue that the fence is in the optimum position(i really can`t see where you could relocate the fence and leaving it out would leave an extraordinary long run to the last).
However,Statistics show something should be done!
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