- This topic has 89 replies, 34 voices, and was last updated 7 minutes ago by
.
- Posts
Punchestown this week. I wonder how many people will watch the steeplechases and think “I wish there was one fence on the course which is smaller than all the others and with some water after it. The absence of such a fence ruins it”?
There doesn’t seem to be enough fatalities (a good thing) to warrant a removal of water jumps from what i’ve seen or heard.
I appreciate this is an older article but i am not aware its changed much in recent years, not hearing anything much away from this thread that are into the sport to ‘get rid’.
The water jump is supposed to be representative of a fence with a brook/stream running alongside it which may have been jumped in the days of racing from steeple to steeple which racing is supposed to replicate. I’m not sure I’ve seen a hedge with such a wide stream alongside it which the racecourse’s portray.
The more I know the less I understand.
ExRubyLight, It is obvious that you know nothing about horse racing. For a start, a fence no longer takes up the whole width of a course so a riderless horse can simply go round it which is what they sometimes do. Secondly, in every race there is a strict limit on how many times a jockey can hit a horse and where he can hit it. Exceed this number by one and the jockey gets a suspension. Exceed by 2 and the suspension is longer. If the number exceeds the upper limit the horse is disqualified and the owner gets nothing. So there is no incentive to win at all costs. Racing is NOT cruel
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.