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Not that it will have any effect on the lager/guiness tent, corporate box inhabitees that are so close to your heart Mr Gillespie, but what are you going to replace it with – a 2 mile hands and heel handicap chase restricted to amateurs perhaps!!
Multiple fatalities weren’t a feature until you and your friends decided to turn the course into a sieve a few years back. You decided that watching old geldings lag up the hill in slow motion wasn’t desirable so don’t blame anyone else when horses travelling too fast end up on their heads occasionally!
- Total Posts 438
Spot on, bear. Too much namby-pambyism is ruining the sport when, if there’s any to be apportioned, the blame lies with those who wanted to see firmer ground at the Festival in the first place.
They should definitely think hard before they ditch one of the oldest races. Supposedly Gillespie was thinking of scrapping the race after last year’s meeting as well. Perhaps they could replace it with another 4yo handicap hurdle :o
The National Hunt Chase in it’s current guise is a terrible race. The changing of the conditions means it attracts horses that are too slow for the SunAlliance. I would rather see the race run as an open handicap for professional riders, either that or change it to a level weights open novice conditions chase for professional riders and change the distance of the sunalliance to 21f.
Personally I like history and for some strange reason I like the National Hunt Chase very much.
Can’t they change the conditions back if there’s such a big problem with it? (my memory is rubbish : what were the conditions before and when were they changed – it was quite recent wasn’t it?)
Bet they wouldn’t be getting rid of the egg-and-spoon-over-bushes-and-stuff race even if the whole field ended up in casualty.
I’ve tried to come up with a cohesive paragraph to end this post, but I can’t so I’ll sum up with a neat summary: I hate Edward Gillespie.
NH racing needs to be mindful of its image.<br>Slowboats ridden by amateur riders over 4 miles plus doesn’t get the pulse racing and contributed to the toll of equine fatalities this year.<br>Reduce the festival to 3 days and ditch this particular race (won’t happen of course due to commercial pressure)
Rich K
Preceeding 2002 (the first renewal under present conditions won by Rith Dubh) horses that had won over hurdles were excluded.
4m Grade 2 £70,000 will do the job for professional riders. All the big long distance races are handicaps, give the real stayers a conditions chase.
Quote: from Irish Stamp on 7:27 pm on Mar. 19, 2006[br]4m Grade 2 £70,000 will do the job for professional riders. All the big long distance races are handicaps, give the real stayers a conditions chase.
They’ve already got one Martin ~ it’s called the Gold Cup!
- Total Posts 438
If anything, the executive should be looking to get rid of the Kim Muir, which caters for much the same horses as the William Hill Trophy, as the number of double-entries for the two contests shows every year. The NH Chase is unique, in that it gives out-and-out staying novices something to go for; three mile handicaps are dime a dozen.
If there is to be a campaign to get rid of he National Hunt chase on the grounds of safety, it might be an idea to check on the fatality rate over a longer period than the last two or three years.
I’ve no idea what the figures are, but it might be the case over the last 20 years that some other race (or races) has grislier stats. Cheltenham would look pretty silly, and would be under a lot of pressure from anti-racing people, if some race like the Sun Alliance chase or the County hurdle turned out to be worse.
I think there was a period in the 80s/90s when the Gold Cup itself might have fallen into that category.
Quote: from Irish Stamp on 7:27 pm on Mar. 19, 2006[br]4m Grade 2 £70,000 will do the job for professional riders.  All the big long distance races are handicaps, give the real stayers a conditions chase.<br>
<br>Given the proximity that that race would have to the Midlands National, I can imagine Northern Racing being dead impressed with that development were it made so.
The EBF Final would be one of few credible races I could think of putting in the four-miler’s slot, but I don’t suppose Sandown’s executive would be any more predisposed to the idea than Nothern Racing to the suggestion above.
Ultimately my preference would be to keep the four-miler, but if it is to go, for heaven’s sake, let’s not have a junior bumper worming its way onto the programme in its stead!
gc<br>
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 8:10 pm on Mar. 21, 2006)
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Probably wouldn’t be all that impressed but in the same way nobodies impressed with moving everything away from Chepstow.
A 4m conditions race should be introduced, we’d find out who the best stamina laden horse really was. Could replace the Ryanair with it also.
Nope I reserve that honour for the Gold Cup also-rans like Sir Rembrandt, Cornish Rebel etc;)
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