- This topic has 13 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Posts
Perthy are giving them a trail after racing on Thursday with the view of using them from next season.
They seem to be getting the thumbs up in Ireland.
From what I’ve seen they have been a great success where they’ve been introduced at the minor Irish tracks such as Kilbeggan and Ballinrobe and have resulted in very few (if any) fallers. They appear to be a half-way-house between the traditional and the fixed-brush hurdle. Sam Morshead is to be congratulated for trialling them this week and I know he wants them to become a permanent fixture at Perth starting from next April’s meeting. They seem to offer the benefits of the fixed-brush hurdles, i.e. encouraging horses to jump properly, without the inherent dangers. The hurdles at Worcester are a deathtrap imo.
Maybe when and indeed Great Leighs builds an inner turf track then maybe they could be used for Floodlit Hurdle races.
Nice obstacles though and be good to see the lower grade courses trail them.
I saw the hurdles at first-hand at the Perth races today. Alan Dempsey was there giving the sales spiel and several Trainers came up and enthused about them. They don’t come cheap, 800 euros for a 4-ft section, but guaranteed for 5 years and completely maintainance-free. Sam Morshead is going to pursue a crusade to have them introduced at every UK track in the interests of equine welfare, but recognises that this is unlikely to happen and says he will have an uphill task to get the HRA even to approve their use at the next Perth meeting in April.
If they do meet with general approval, I would hope that the NTF and the ROA could exert some pressure.
It’s a shame I chose the wrong day to go to Perth – I would like to have seen the trial "live" – I hope ATR decide to show it.
When I say them yesterday my first reaction was "aren’t they ugly looking things" – then again it ain’t a beauty contest.
However if they are safer then the asthetics are irrelevant.
In a note in yesterdays racecard Sam commented "Thirty to fifty of our timber hurdles get broken every meeting, the time and cost to repair and replace them is substantial."
So it seems the outlay would be offset against the reduced repair costs.
It will be interesting to see if they really are as durable as the manufactuer suggests,
In a note in yesterdays racecard Sam commented "Thirty to fifty of our timber hurdles get broken every meeting, the time and cost to repair and replace them is substantial."
Aye, and from memory I think one of them got its top bar smashed to bits as early as the first flight of the first race on the card yesterday.
I’m no fan at all of conventional hurdles – one can over-generalise, of course, but on balance I don’t think they encourage animals to make a shape as much as the brush alternatives and the debris they can cause on breaking often errs on the side of dangerous. If I remember correctly, wasn’t The Grey Berry lost at Huntingdon last winter as a result of effectively having a leg speared on hurdle damage?
I’d be happy to see brushes or similar adopted universally, though it is as much the hearts and minds of some trainers that have to be won over as those of racecourse executives. For example, I distinctly remember a quote of Martin Pipe’s a few years ago, in which he blamed a defeat of Peter’s Two Fun at Worcester on the brushes "confusing" the gelding – he had only ever known conventional hurdles at home and at other tracks like Newton Abbot. Maybe people closer to yards than myself know how popular a standpoint that is among trainers, if it is at all.
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.
I must say that I’m already a huge fan of the easyfix hurdles ~ much more so that the "mini-fence" style. I’d jump one!
Aye, and from memory I think one of them got its top bar smashed to bits as early as the first flight of the first race on the card yesterday.
I often stand by the last hurdle when I’m at Perth, and it’s the norm that a hurdle has to be replaced in a race.
Don’t under-estimate Sam at Perth, if he wants something he’ll do his darnedest.
I’ve never been that keen on the wooden hurdles and it seems likely that Easy Fix hurdles are better.
Rob
The new hurdles seem to be the way forward both for safety and in the long run economy.
I shall be unable to go to Perth today but I heard on ATR this morning that Nicky Richards may well school Monet’s Garden over the new hurdles after racing there today.
The new hurdles look better certainly. It is also true that they do not get as easily damaged and they may well encourage "better" jumping. However, when a horse "steps" into one (as they occasionally do) then the very fact that they are robust will be to the detriment of the horse…something has to give. On balance, I like them & support the trial but like most new initiatives, they will bring issues of their own.
pictures from the easyfix Perth schooling trials can be found on http://www.grossick.co.uk
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.