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Apologies for not realising there was a Norfolk National at Fakenham.
Now I want to go see!
Well here’s the 2022 version, run on May 3rd, providing 8 minutes of viewing pleasure:
The equivalent fixture this year is on Tuesday May 9th.
I’m pretty sure that the now sadly-defunct Point track Northaw had a permanent sign, as you were on the roundabout at Junction 24 of the M25, with additional options to drive towards Cockfosters, Enfield, or Potter’s Bar, where the circuit was close to, talking about “Grand National Steeplechasing” each May Bank Holiday Monday there.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Notice a race called the Berkshire National will be run at Ascot on Saturday over 3m5f plus.
Looking at last year’s Ascot card, it replaces the 3m Novices limited handicap that Chianti Classico won (three runner race). There was not a Berkshire National on the card last year.
I presume it is a new race, or is it a revival of an old race that was previously scrapped?
Anyone, one more to add to this terrific thread.
“And despite the closure of Folkestone, there is still a Grand National staged in Kent.
Central Park in Sittingbourne is the current home of the Greyhound Grand National. That one probably gets the smallest field of all those listed.”
The 2024 final is on Sunday, still in Kent but at Crayford (the event’s home since 2022).
It could be the last ever run, given that Crayford is about the only track to still stage hurdling and Entain/Ladbrokes announced yesterday that the venue is going to be closed down.
Another blow to a sport that is in danger of becoming moribund.
The OP mentioned the Somerset National at Wincanton run over 3m 2f, something of a namby-pamby sprint in ‘true’ National terms
Is the Cecil Hunt Memorial Trophy run over 4m 2f at Taunton – known as the Dick Reynolds And Stephen Little Bookmakers Handicap Chase for many years – still extant? If so, it would be a much more suitable candidate for renaming as Somerset National
Edit: After a bit of digging I see it became the Coral Chase Showcase Handicap (for the Cecil Hunt Memorial Trophy) in 1999 over a reduced 3m 3f and then the Tote Exacta Coming Soon Chase Showcase Handicap, without a mention of poor old Cecil
Oh well, never mind
Taunton have also lost the Portman Cup, a conditions chase run over 3M 4 1/2F at their valuable Saturday meeting in mid January.
That was the race won three years in succession (2020 – 22) by Yala Enki, ridden by Bryony Frost. The meeting was lost to the weather in 2023 and 2024, and in 2025 program book, there’s no Portman Cup or any equivalent on that day. In fact the entire meeting has been downgraded with much lower prize money – perhaps a by product of Premierisation, as Ascot and Haydock race on the same day.
They do have a 0-135 handicap over that trip scheduled for the Monday of Cheltenham Festival week, which labours under the name of ‘William Hill Epic Boost Handicap Chase’.
I suppose those 4M 2F races were never quite the same after the retirement of past winners Just So (1991) and Killeshin (1996), who were both regulars in them.
Killeshin actually ran in 12 races over a trip of four miles or more, a feat that I suspect would be difficult to match now.
Berkshire National is definitely a new one. The Nationalist movement in Berkshire must have taken off after I left the area in the early 2000s…
Mention of Just So and Killeshin is making me very nostalgic. There don’t seem to be any horses quite like that around nowadays, though there are fewer opportunities for them to emerge.
I’m still bitter about Killeshin being brought down at the fourth last in the 1998 National! He was miles behind but staying on in his usual dour fashion. I reckon he’d have been third. He was remounted and came sixth, which would of course not be allowed now.
The ‘Berkshire National’ sounds much more like the name of very up-market golf club, than a horserace.
The US Masters is played at Augusta National, so a new home for the British Masters?
Alternatively, we could send a few staying chasers across the Atlantic to plod three and a half miles around their golf course.
I’m still bitter about Killeshin being brought down at the fourth last in the 1998 National! He was miles behind but staying on in his usual dour fashion
The phrase ” namby-pamby sprint” I used in my earlier post was actually stolen from the late Alastair Down who used it in his report after that heavy going slog to describe how Killeshin regarded the Grand National trip
The Earth Summit-Suny Bay ‘match’ remains vivid, mainly for the considerate way Llewellyn and Bradley rode them in desperate conditions
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