- This topic has 24 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 2 months ago by
.
- Posts
It is a while since I have read it but I am sure I recall reading in the late Ivor Herbert’s book about Red Rum that the great horse once ran on firm ground at Haydock in the middle of February!
The 1997 Charlie Hall Chase: good to firm.
The 1997 Peterborough Chase: good
The 1998 Comet Chase: good
Since all three races attracted only 13 runners, maybe someone was starting to think that watering could be a good thing.
However, overwatering has the same negative effect, which some clerks don’t seem to understand.Used to be that good was the new good to firm but now we are starting to get to the point of starting a Festival (the Dublin one this time) on good to soft ground being too quick.
For me if you have a horse that can’t run on genuine good ground then they shouldn’t be racing full stop – trainers make such a big deal about their horses wanting better ground when running on deep winter ground but the moment good appears in the description it then turns to questions about watering to make sure the ground is ‘safe’.
I can somewhat understand not running NH horses on ground with firm in the description be don’t give me the horse welfare argument because if it truly was about that we wouldn’t have summer jump racing – horses by and large will pretty much go on any ground and I am convinced that no horse needs extremes of going as it is rather the case that those types need it more to inconvenience their rivals to give them a better chance of winning.
Sorry rant over.
LD,
Realistically, we’ve always had summer jumping, the difference now is that we have 12 months of the year jumping.
Way, way back when I was a teenager, we had jumping in May and again in August, often on ground officially described as hard. It suited a number of horses, who were able to run up a sequence in small fields and were then put away for the winter.
My first bet in a betting shop was 2s 6d each way in a 3M handicap chase at Newton Abbot, placed when I was away tramping round the Peak District with friends, staying in youth hostels and discovering the delights of a local brew called Ostlers Nut Brown Ale.
AP – yeah I remember hard being a going description too back in the day – Mr Frisk’s National track record was done on firm ground and that was when the fences were still the fearsome obstacles to jump although the Brook part of Bechers was filled in for that year – yes there were two fatalities (one jumping at the Canal Turn and one fracturing a leg on the flat – probably ground related) with 20 of the 38 runners completing.
My gripe was more the excuse of quoting horse welfare as the main reason to start a Festival on softer ground (watered) if mother nature didn’t intervene ahead of time and yet their being no issue with having summer racing being held on much quicker ground…..it either is or it isn’t.
Sorry for getting way off track – One Man was a very good horse, being grey/white no doubt played a big part in that along with him finally getting redemption with him laying his Cheltenham hoodoo (outside of his Pillar Chase win) to rest in the QMCC only to tragically lose him some scant few weeks later at Aintree and then his legendary trainer passing from his ongoing illness (which prevent him from being at Cheltenham but saw him return to watch him at Aintree) months later…One Man’s story had it all and those things resonate majorly with the race going public.
I was in a betting shop in the City watching that race and fall (I believe at Aintree) that ended his life.
The shop just went quiet, we left nearly in tears and went back to work.
I don’t know if it was the horse was grey etc, but there was some attachment between the public and this horse, maybe the best grey since Dessie.
I usually went to both the Thursday & Friday in those days, however that year I was in work in Wigan; but I had one of those mini Casio colour TV’s, and watched it……as soon as he fell you knew. Awful….
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.