- This topic has 18 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 1 month ago by
.
- Posts
Really enjoyed watching the hunters at Cheltenham this evening. One thing I notice regularly is how well they jump and it seems fall a lot less often than their regular jumps counterparts.
Any reasons for this?
I would suggest that when they go hunting the obstacles they have to jump are far less forgiving than racecourse fences – ergo they end up better jumpers.
I was going to suggest the races aren’t as competitive and that they would tend to race at a slower pace in points/hunters than in handicaps.
Hello,
I have not checked tonight’s times, but I believe they are a lot slower..just like the elderly on this Forum…
{This message was typed at 6.17pm this evening}regards,
doyley
In addition to DJ and Paul’s points I’d add that the jockeys are generally not so ‘strong’ as their pro counterparts which allows the horses to negotiate fences as they choose cf loose horses rarely fall
It’s an enjoyable evening made all the more entertaining by the benzedrine-fuelled delivery of Mark Johnson and Jonathan Neesom so obviously being in his heaven
I’d agree with all the suggestions posited above.
Re: the race paces, to the naked eye they only appeared to go off at a searching pace in the opening 2m contest last night, and even then not as hard and frenetic as some examples of that small genre of races.
I was at the course rather than in front of the telly, so I missed Jonathan’s contributions, though I don’t doubt they’ll have been as enthusiastic and informed as Drone inferred. Mr Johnson was on decent, relatively cliche-free form, although the curse of the commentator unfortunately struck when the winner of the Intermediate Final went wrong up the run-in the very second he had pronounced it a horse with a huge future.
Having seen him being tonked in fairly ordinary company at Horseheath a few months ago, I’ve no idea where that win for James Pine came from, though…
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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 second that, Really good racing at Cheltenham and great to see the amateurs having the place to themselves before the course has its summer hibernation.
Am definatley thinking about doing the Untied Hunts at Folkestone next year and i just hope that Uttoxeter do the right thing and put the Mount Argus back upto 4m2f instead of dumbing it down by reducing the distance each year, soon it will be the worlds first 1f steeplechase
As a Uttoxeter member can’t help but observe that they have been dumbing the whole programme down for about 5 years. Why they only have one Hunter Chase now all season I do not know.
Also can’t help but wonder that the scarcity of fallers at Cheltenham is in part because the fences are now so soft. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing but….
Totally agree.
Singer and Frielander day was one of my fave days of the season from 1999 but steadily they removed the quality races and even put a seller in after the big race.
Since Stan Clarke died it has become a shadow of its past glories.
I used to like going to Uttoxeter but even getting rid of the cross track was a mistake for me, such a grand track aswell
The comment about horses who run in these runs acutully go out hunting is a joke. Many appear at the meet get their certificate that they hunt signed then bugger off home again. I spoke too a hunt secraty n Ireand who told me he had two hundred horses on his boxes too run in points and hunter chases.
In my grandfathers time he had a permit, his hunters also ran in points, but we are taking forty plsu years ago.
How can it be an amature sport when a horse leaves the yard its been "hunting" with and joins Paul Nichols.
i for one would like too see the hunter chases only ran at their on meetings and not as part of festivals, if its meant too be an amature then proffesional trainers should not be allowed too have runners in these races.
Am definatley thinking about doing the Untied Hunts at Folkestone next year
It won’t surprise some of you to learn that this is the only Folkestone meeting I have attended to date! It’s a very nice night out, with a mostly relaxed atmosphere. Mark you, there were a few boos that went up from a section of the crowd when Risk Accessor won a race there last year, so at least a small whiff of anti-pro feeling pervades the meeting.
i just hope that Uttoxeter do the right thing and put the Mount Argus back upto 4m2f instead of dumbing it down by reducing the distance each year, soon it will be the worlds first 1f steeplechase
Hear hear. I don’t think they will reverse the cuts to the trip, though. I’m not aware of what precipitated the reductions in the first place, but were I to guess I’d suggest the racecourse executive decided having something like The Malakarma turning up and beating just three or four rivals year in, year out, didn’t make for either a particularly thrilling or punter-friendly event. Tsk tsk.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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 always get the feeling that hunter chases aren’t always ‘run to form’, and having just watched Mr Burton fail to put odds-on favourite Alvino into the race at Ludlow I can’t see my opinion changing in the near future.
It’s for this reason that hunter chases are to be avoided as a betting medium. Taking Alvino as an example, he annihilated tonight’s runner-up Young Tot last time out and yet wasn’t able to get near him today. Every time he has won he’s been held up, brought into the race 3 or 4 out and been allowed to go on, and when he loses he’s generally out the back and never in contention.
It never ceases to amaze me just how many ‘odd’ results there are in this sphere.
I may be imagining this but when my friend and I walked past Chelts Racecourse last weekend the fences looked smaller than normal. It is possible that the jumps have just been dressed down for the closed season but the other thing we thought is that maybe the fences had been lowered for the Hunter Chases….does anyone know if this is the case?
If it is it could explain the lower number of fallers…
I always get the feeling that hunter chases aren’t always ‘run to form’, and having just watched Mr Burton fail to put odds-on favourite Alvino into the race at Ludlow I can’t see my opinion changing in the near future.
It’s for this reason that hunter chases are to be avoided as a betting medium. Taking Alvino as an example, he annihilated tonight’s runner-up Young Tot last time out and yet wasn’t able to get near him today. Every time he has won he’s been held up, brought into the race 3 or 4 out and been allowed to go on, and when he loses he’s generally out the back and never in contention.
It never ceases to amaze me just how many ‘odd’ results there are in this sphere.
Unless someone has been through the 115 or so hunters’ chases for each of the last few years, noted the position of the winners in the markets of all of them, and then found a compelling case having compared the resultant distribution with that of other jumps races, I’m actually disinclined to give any “hunter chases are more unreadable than other races” hypothesis too much credence.
They remain by a long way my most bankable races (most recently finding Seafield Bogie during a radio punditry session on Tuesday evening). I have to take the view that I have gained these wins resorting to something other than second-guessing connections, or worse still, just dumb luck!
I’ve been doing other stuff today, so haven’t seen the Ludlow race yet. However, there will be a few points I shall be considering when I do, not least whether Alvino may have been feeling any of his old – and abundant – niggles.
This is a horse, as Mackenzie and Harris remind us, with “severe physical problems” which had restricted him to 13 starts in seven seasons before 2008, yet tonight was his fifth run since February 9th and the one following the shortest break (18 days, compared to 24, 28 and 25 in reverse order).
As such, it would not surprise me one iota if the horse had run a little flatter for Richard Burton, or had tweaked something on the way round, and was looked after a bit as a consequence.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
Maybe they’re simply races for those lucky enough to see the horses in question in points, Jeremy. I can only speak as an ‘outsider looking in’.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.