The 2.55 at Chepstow?

[hoofhearted]

I fear, Rob, that your rational and reasoned response will fail to resonate in any way with the previous first-time poster who is clearly a person of a certain mindset and with a definite agenda.
In-my-opinion, the post in question is thoroughly underserving of any reply whatsoever and is best ignored.

[robnorth]

h h

You’re probably right, but it gave me chance to say what I haven’t previously said about this contest.

It occured to me that the statement ‘I made my last ever bet on horse racing that day’ seems rather odd in this context. It would perhaps have made a little more sense if the poster had written ‘I watched my last horse race’ given the stance taken. But then again maybe it’s because I don’t need to bet to enjoy the sport?

Rob

[Grasshopper]

I agree with Cavelino Rampante. His/her comment was NOT over the top, the horses were all clearly exhausted and not fit to run, let alone jump.

What was over the top and uncalled for was the responses. Are you all so blinded by your love of horse racing to see what really happens? Take off your rose tincted spectacles, and open your eyes – that race was not the only cruel one. Shame on you, just like the dispicable jockeys and owners, you care more about money (winning your bets) than a horses welfare.

Yet I bet you’d be the first to phone the R.S.P.C.A if you saw a dog being kicked in the street. But there is only one difference between that and horse racing – one is legal. Both are just as cruel. There are often horses that have been illegally drugged (usually the ones playing up), but the drug they use, like the vast majority of this threads morals, is virtually undetectable.

I made my last ever bet on horse racing that day.

What a hoop.

[graysonscolumn]

Been quiet from Tom recently, hasn’t it.

gc

Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.

[apracing]

I believe the appropriate response to a post from a Mysterion, is to send immediately for Captain Scarlet.

AP

[yeats]

They start with their backs to the open ditch and the old water jump has been replaced with a plain fence.

A long overdue move as that water jump was one of the most pointless in terms of a spectacle for the racegoer.

I’m rather less anti-water jumps than many on the forum, and Hereford’s was not one especially noted for putting horses on the floor (or worse), but you’re quite right, it served zero purpose as a visual spectacle where it was.

gc

Is it necessary for a water jump to always be a visual spectacle and is a replacement plain fence any more so?
One thing the RSPCA say is that water jumps are more horse friendly compared to other types of fences, so the more water jumps the better as far as they’re concerned.

[graysonscolumn]

Is it necessary for a water jump to always be a visual spectacle

Essentially no, Yeats, but as the numbers of such obstacles have continued to thin in recent years (with only Stratford bucking the trend), I do actually wonder how many will continue to survive for much longer; and where they do, whether racecourse execs are influenced to retain them solely on account of their physical position on their respective racecourses and the thrill – real or imagined – they afford to spectators.

I freely admit that there might be one or two courses on the following list that have ditched their water jumps since I last thought to update it, but the split actually appears relatively even between those water jumps which are and are not located in spectator-friendly areas of a course;

Aintree – in front of stands
Cartmel – first in back straight, fence closest to stands
Haydock – in front of stands (not in use at present, though)
Hexham – in front of public viewing area (no stands here!)
Leicester – back straight, but pretty viewable sideways on from stands
Ludlow – in front of stands
Newbury – in front of stands
Perth – in front of stands
Stratford – in front of stands

Cheltenham – back straight
Doncaster – back straight
Exeter – back straight
Huntingdon – back straight (astroturf)
Newton Abbot – before home turn
Sandown – back straight
Wincanton – away from stands

Tangentially, I’m planning a criminally-overdue first ever visit to Tweseldown this weekend – if this isn’t the only point-to-point courses in circulation which still maintain a water jump, there can’t be more than one or two more (pretty sure Marks Tey’s example wasn’t there when I visited that course last year).

gc

Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.

[graysonscolumn]

Tangentially, I’m planning a criminally-overdue first ever visit to Tweseldown this weekend – if this isn’t the only point-to-point courses in circulation which still maintain a water jump, there can’t be more than one or two more (pretty sure Marks Tey’s example wasn’t there when I visited that course last year).

Still haven’t got to Tweseldown (maybe this weekend?), but I can confirm that the near century-old course at Kimble in Buckinghamshire is another pointing course that’s maintained its water jump, too.

I took a close look at it during its meeting last Saturday and its composition would have some racing fans recoiling in horror – the water element is an enclosed part of a brook that runs parallel to the hedgerow in which the fence is situated. It looked to me to be far deeper than any remaining Rules water jump, possibly a couple of feet, and is not tapered on the landing side.

To the best of my knowledge it’s not an obstacle to have claimed any lives in recent memory (unlike Tweseldown’s equivalent, at which Geos perished a few years ago), but that’s more to do with the width of the water jump being very narrow rather than the design of the obstacle being particularly safety first-oriented. Wish I’d brought the camera.

gc

Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.

[Author]

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