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On a totally unrelated topic about Ludlow which is a fantastice little jumping course by the way could someone please answer me this
Why do the steeplechase fences have old tyres at the bottom of them, I dont think the course has any sponsorship deals with Michellin but it is something i have always wanted to know?
Ballast – to keep them in place.
I agree it’s a delightful site for racing – just a pity about the horrible portable fences, the hurdles that fall over flat if you breathe on them, the multiple road crossings covered with matting and the golf course bunkers on the infield that are potentially dangerous for loose horses.
AP
Despite having been there about a hundred times I’d never noticed the tyres!
Ludlow is a course that seems to divide opinion into those that love it and those that hate it.
I have never seen a problem involving the golf bunkers and it is far from being the only course that crosses public roads. Melling anyone? I find it to be a proper country course and would not swap the ambience for what you get at most bigger tracks.
I have to agree I would have Ludlow in the top five for pleasant jumps courses, not in the same league as Fontwell and Cartmel but not too far behind.
Providing it is neither too wet or windy the grandstand roof is one of the best places to watch an afternoons racing.
I think I’d agree with more or less all of the points raised, positive and negative!
It’s a lovely, unpretentious course which I don’t get to visit nearly often enough, but please God somebody build them some at least halfway decent obstacles. I’m not sure I’d want anything remorselessly stiff around such a speed track (the Mildmay Course is bad enough in that regard), but by the same token I inspected several of the fences last time I was up there two years ago and insubstantial isn’t the word.
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.
Ludlow must have some of the weakest fences in the UK. I have seen better built/stiffer fences at my local point to point. How often is a fence demolished at Ludlow and then not jump for the rest of the afternoon?
The portables at Haydock almost put them on a par with Ludlow. Such a crying shame when you think Red Rum used to grace this course so often on his way to Aintree truimph.
The stiffest and best presented fences in the UK? Wincanton?
Ludlow must have some of the weakest fences in the UK. I have seen better built/stiffer fences at my local point to point. How often is a fence demolished at Ludlow and then not jump for the rest of the afternoon?
…all the stranger when you consider that the Ludlow Hunt has its point-to-point meeting just down the road at Bitterley, where the fences are a little below regulation height but very, very stiff indeed.
A meeting of minds between the two sites might produce some spot-on fences at both.
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.
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