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I remember AW jumping, at Southwell don’t know how long it was before they cancelled it, but in my opinion it was too long. It was only hurdles on the AW but the fatality rate was high. Since then it’s flat only.
The best things in life are free.
But you can give them to the birds and bees.“I was not around when it was a jump course, but I am pretty much sure the fibresand came about as an experiment for AW jumping, but it got shelved as proved too fatal”
Aw racing was originally proposed as a possibility in 1984 due to 72 NH meetings getting cancelled though I don’t believe it was ever even considered for a jumping purpose. I believe it was proposed to offer punters something to bet on when the NH meetings got cancelled but was never considered for actual jumps racing.
Lingfield was the 1st aw track in the uk and staged it’s first meeting in 1988. Southwell then became the 2nd aw track in 1989 and the only fibresand track in the country.
Wolverhampton came next and became the countries 2nd fibresand track after it closed its turf track.
If 2 of you remember jumping taking place at Southwell aw track then I stand corrected. I don’t ever remember that happening. Perhaps it’s my age but my mind is blown that they actually held hurdles races on the track.
Edit Added:
you are certainly both correct having looked into it both Lingfield and Southwell held aw hurdles races for a short period before being scrapped.Amazingly one of my favourite horses and my first ever Cheltenham festival winner the brilliant Viking Flagship actually won a hurdles race on Lingfields aw hurdle track.
I’m amazed and have learnt something new. Not surprised it didn’t last long. What on earth were they thinking?
Hurdle races were held on the AW tracks when they were first introduced. I can certainly remember watching hurdle races around Lingfield and Southwell. The hurdles were made of plastic.
It was very poor racing and there was a spate of fatalities and eventually hurdle racing on the AW was abolished, some time in the mid 1990s if I remember correctly.
My memory may be playing tricks but I am sure I can remember a brief experiment with steeplechases on the Southwell AW track.
I have only been to Southwell races once. It was quite a good jumps card. It was the Great Yorkshire Chase meeting, transferred from Doncaster when the grandstand there was being rebuilt.
The days when Southwell was just a jumps track before the AW started just pre-dates my serious interest in racing so I do not really remember it. I think I am right in saying it was a modest track with not many meetings.
Prior to the introduction of AW, Southwell staged both turf Flat and NH meetings; the course dates back to the late 19th century
After the introduction of AW there was until quite recently (possibly still is) a lone turf Flat meeting held sometime in summer
Don’t recall AW Chasing ever being trialled, at Southwell or anywhere else; others may know different as I’d have made a point of ignoring it
I am sure Southwell once staged two meetings on the same day. A Flat meeting on Turf in the afternoon and then a Flat AW meeting in the evening that was transferred from Wolverhampton.
Can’t ever remember if I backed anything on AW jumps, probably did
All weather was formed because the jumps around February was called off because of the snow and ice, however all weather was poorly named as fog caused havoc with it.
To my knowledge all weather jumps isn’t officially cancelled as they look like they can bring it back at anytime, but I really hope they don’t.
The best things in life are free.
But you can give them to the birds and bees.- Total Posts 2553
Think there were some AW chases at Wolverampton, Drone, but not 100% sure; If not Wolves then one of the other tracks. The chases may well have been short lived and scrapped before they scrapped AW jumps completely.
Shame that there were too many injuries as you wouldn’t go far wrong with sticking with the jollies, but not kept any records of this.
Wow, Viking Flagship?
I know that the mercurial Pridwell won an AW hurdles race at Southwell (remember him beating Istabraq in the Aintree Hurdle, what a race).
I don’t remember any AW chases and I’m trying to remember if any hurdles were shown on terrestrial TV.
As for Wolverhampton I can recall watching the last jumps meeting there on ATR.
As for bumpers on the AW don’t get me started. The whole point of NH flat contests were to give unraced horses their first experiences of racing and to get them used to running between the wings of hurdles which is why they are run on hurdles courses with the flights taken out. Not to run them on the sand at Lingfield and Newcastle.
Ironically, Southwell racecourse is, comparatively speaking, nowhere near Southwell.
The racecourse is officially at Rolleston, a village some way from Southwell, and a very convenient Rolleston railway station is next to the racecourse, making it very accessible by train.
If you drive from Newark, which isn’t far away, you don’t go anywhere near Southwell itself. I have never once gone anywhere near Southwell itself on my many visits to the racecourse.
I used to like the character of the old green grandstands in the days when it was just a National Hunt course but, after the advent of the all weather track, with the mistake made over the angle of the grandstand, the course lost any character and made viewing poor.
The resident course announcer many years ago always insisted on saying “Welcome to South Well” rather than pronouncing it Suthell, because he said that this was how the locals pronounced it.
Perhaps Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick, who supposedly lives in Southwell as Conservative MP for Newark, could arbitrate but then he is more interested in going to the palatial mansion that he claims is his family home in Herefordshire.
It’s called South Well because I believe there was a north well and a south well. But we always call it Suthell. And we’ve always driven through the town itself to get to the racetrack. The first thing I ever remember about it was seeing a building site with graffiti written on it in latin which made me realise how posh it was. We went to a jumpers bumper one year; it was when the weather had been really awful. We were surprised that the horse boxes were able to get there as the roads roundabout are very hilly and the area freezes quite badly. We ended up standing next to Nicky Henderson and a woman in a fur coat [we assumed it was one of his owners]. Apart from us I’m sure there were only a handful of people there. And I’m also pretty sure that we were told that Aidan O’Brien used to bring his horses over for a spin round the track prior to going to the Breeders Cup. Sadly the jumpers bumper was marred by the fatality to a horse that slipped up on one of the bends. It was quite a surreal day really. Southwell tends to flood really badly; I’ve lost track of how many times The Bramley Apple pub has been flooded out. The folk festival is wonderful with Morris Dancers dancing through the streets; they used to dance all the way from Nottingham [with the help of a bus].They even dance in the Minster albeit being gloriously pagan.
A town is defined not by its forcing animals to jump obstacles in unnatural conditions, or by its numbers of covid casualties, but rather by its spirituality. Being a man of humble faith who tries to atone for the many uneasily walking ghosts in Care homes by constant prayer for those who laid them too early to rest, that they may mend their ways and somehow try to become better people, but I must inform you, that aside from the prayer, and in my few spare hours, and God willing, I am often on the lookout for a nice house of God.
Leaving errors of the past to one side, the town itself sports the beautiful Minster Cathedral and no better place to visit after a few bevvies when racing is done and dusted and the bookies have been put to bed. Not suitable for those of an especially sensitive nature and be warned, when the moon is up, late of an evening, you might just catch sight of him – the very ghost of a deformed fellow that preys there high up in the tower. He is known to lean out and shout demonically
” The Wells The Wells ”flatcapgamble.. You’ll be needing a stiff one after that me dear – can be a terrible shock to the system and the ghostly figure that shows himself, appears to be almost burned to bits – poor poor fellow – let’s hope for both modesty’s sake and for insurance purposes, he was well covered.
- Total Posts 2553
Well I’ve never been burnt at Southwell, not because I’m a shrewdy.. no no no – It’s just that I’ve not been there yet.
I do not know whether or not Cochrane was similarly burned in that light air crash 20 years ago Tank, or whether it was more a crunching of metal minus the damaging kerosene. Dettori has let his Midway Lady saviour finally go.
I hated the intro of all weather tracks considering it a bookie conspiracy to muddle the maths. The hurdle races on the artificial produced a 40% win rate and so safety was possibly not the only consideration for its removal, looking back into my memory.
Dirt glorious dirt or whatever you like to call it, has been welcomed into my family as a brother would. I still love the grass flat or jumps, but am currently enjoying the variety of foreign climes whatever surface.
flatcapgamble…He will put a dog collar on me on Sunday night and gets down on his knees before me and beg forgiveness for all his tins.
A horse I used to follow in modest hurdles at tight tracks, Whippers Delight, failed to win an AW hurdle in about 9 attempts. He tried just the once at Southwell but was runner-up in 6 consecutive efforts at Lingfield. Considering he won 6 hurdles on the turf, perhaps these races were not quite as dire as suggested.
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