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Yet again a load of hurdles and fences omitted at both Kelso and Cheltenham today!
Where is the evidence supporting the theory that horses find it more difficult to jump a fence or hurdle due to what jockeys perceive to be low sunlight?
Probably the finest example of the BHA being total empty heads! If I’d paid to go to either of these tracks I’d be looking for a refund! This ain’t jump racing!
I think it’s about time this was properly addressed and they start jumping all stated obstacles and see if they do indeed have more falls or unseats. How would they prove it’s low sun to blame though?
Boils my piss!
Its very annoying, I never understand why they dont start the fixtures earlier to avoid this. Its not like they dont know its a possibility..
Was thinking much the same earlier, watching the hurdle race at Cheltenham. It happens season after season there; it’s not like it’s a recent problem.
Cant they have temporary sunblocking fences, that retract when not needed, at the ‘Best Mate Stand’ end of the course?
The meeting at Aintree tomorrow has been notorious for omitted fences due to low sun in previous years. I am going there tomorrow, so I hope the sun stays in!
It is frustrating but the situation isn’t going to change in our modern health and safety culture. I expect racecourses are terrified of being sued.
Starting earlier would alleviate the problem but I expect the bookmakers would not want big meetings starting at 11am. And there is the logistics of stable staff and spectators travelling earlier.
I give up on this issue as I think it is massively overplayed and badly taken advantage of now seemingly more than it ever was.
Lens technology means jockeys could be wearing googles that are reactive to direct sunlight so they can see even in the full glare of the sun and there is absolutely zero evidence to say that a horse makes a mistake because it is unsighted by the sun (horses constantly take off too early for hurdles/fences in conditions where there is no sun out), so we only have the jockey’s word for it that it was the sun that affected their horse.
I am now resigned to the fact that anytime it is a sunny day for jumps racing, I automatically expect hurdles/fences to be omitted because that is what we do now in this current age.
Johnson started all this in his roll of jockeys representative always sticking his nose in whenever there was a blink of sunlight.
Ian Watkinson has a better view of this on the NH forums.
I think courses should be made to refund if more than two races have omitted fences , or made to abandon a race with three or more fences/ hurdles omitted .
Be interesting to see how the accountants oh sorry race organises behaved then.To add a bit of balance to this thread, some on site observations.
I’ve stood looking up the straight at Kelso during a race when the sun has been shining down the straight and you can’t see a fence properly if approaching. By the same token I’ve walked up the hill in the same direction from betting ring to paddock and walked into people because I was dazzled by the sun. Jockeys can wear visors to dull the glare, horses can’t.
The above said, Kelso could reduce the effect of the low sun by laying out a ‘winter course’ with 2 hurdles down the side. I did suggest it to the course manager once, but BHA make these things difficult apparently.
While I find the fence omissions frustrating by observation I understand why they come about. Unfortunately when the course was laid out in 1821 Health and Safety was not top of the agenda for the architects, indeed it was flat racing only for a few years. But on that theme, a thought about the new jump course layout at Windsor, a squashed oval rather than a figure eight. It seems to have been designed so that the horses don’t have to run South West and should avoid the problem of running directly toward the winter sun.
“The above said, Kelso could reduce the effect of the low sun by laying out a ‘winter course’ with 2 hurdles down the side. I did suggest it to the course manager once, but BHA make these things difficult apparently.”
That is surprising about the BHA because Aintree does use a sort of winter hurdles set up. At the Grand National meeting, there are three hurdles in the home straight. At the Old Roan and November meeting, there are only two hurdles in the home straight with the third last around where the cross fence is on the Chase course.
Aintree has to use this set up in the autumn and winter. If it didn’t the run in from the last hurdle would start in the back straight.
If Aintree do have winter and summer options then I might try pressing the current manager Jonathan Garratt at Kelso. I believe it was his predecessor who expressed doubts and Jonathan does tend to be approachable.
I’m another who thought the same today; Oh here we go again. How did they manage for years and years – or didn’t the sun shine back in the day.
However, from memory, back in the day, the big jumps races on the BBC from Cheltenham/ Newbury (both l/h courses) were often run earlier in the afternoon, around 2 o’clock.
Looking forward to tomorrow at Aintree, if the sun is shining, then we’ll have more fences omitted. Simple solution – return the Old Road Chase to Wincanton, run as the South West Pattern Chase…..
Aintree is my nearest course, but they’ve had quite a lot of races transferred to them from other courses….which is something I can’t abide.
Next meeting at Kelso is November 9th and starts at 11.10 with last race at 1.52. Start time is presumably because of ‘Premierisation’ but may help to mitigate against the low sun problem to a degree. Clocks will have moved back an hour, but the early start should lessen the problem as the sun will be farther east at the start of the meeting.
We are living in a different era. Hardly “nonsense”.
Obstacles rightly less solid. However, as a result horses are now used to going through the top, which in turn means they’re used to getting away with more mistakes and therefore jumping with more speed and less accuracy. When low sun is then added we have a bigger problem.
Yes, if there was a bad pile up due to the low sun then it would get plenty of bad publicity. Whereas there was a time when the safety of horse and jockey were not taken into account. But was that really a good thing? Non-racing public would not have been concerned, but now many are. People would be asking why the fences weren’t omitted. For sure it’s frustrating for all of us, but it’s been a problem for so long, I’d be surprised if possible alternatives haven’t all been considered by the authorities.In the 70’s and 80’s we also knew less about the horse than we do now. Research has been done which suggests it actually takes longer for horses eyesight to adjust from dark to light and light to dark than it does for humans… Therefore although we can never be sure… the probability is surely that the horse is more dazzled by low sun than humans / jockeys are?
Value Is Everythingit actually takes longer for horses eyesight to adjust from dark to light and light to dark than it does for humans… Therefore although we don’t “know” for certain… the probability is surely that the horse is more dazzled by low sun than humans / jockeys are
Possibly rather than probably I reckon as the longer adjustment to light levels might be negated by horses having largely non-overlapping monocular ‘wide angle of view’ vision due to eyes set on the sides of their head rather than the overlapping ‘depth of field’ binocular vision we have with eyes on the front of our head
Therefore ‘head on’ glare from a low sun does not wholly fill a horse’s field of view in the way it does ours
Just a thought
Are there any summer jumps courses with straights that face W-to-NW?
If so have any late races at evening meetings at such courses had obstacles removed due to low sun?
Or is it just a GMT thing, or in yesterday’s cases a nearly-but-not-quite GMT thing
Ffos Las and Uttoxeter have certainly had issues in the summer:
It has clouded over a bit at Aintree. Let’s hope low,sun will not be a issue today, as it has been in the past.
I notice they are using the two hurdles in the straight with a cross flight as the third last obstacle.
It would be interesting if someone compiled statistics for fallers at those obstacles which are routinely omitted these days in the bad old days and compared those figures to overall fallers at those courses.
I admit that it would be a Herculean task, but the results would be fascinating and would hopefully put this nonsense to bed once and for all.
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