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Watched Moneylaws leave his legs badly in Hexham’s water jump yesterday (immediately pu so hope he’s OK). It has always occured to me how much they look like an injury trap although I have no particular stats to prove this.
Wasn’t there some move to ban them a few years ago? I’m sure some have been taken out of racecourses but obviously they’re still allowed.
Mike
Yeats is quite right.
Water jumps are easily the safest obstacles on a chase course (measured on a jump-by-jump basis).
This is especially true in recent years after the "tapered lip" (for want of a better expression) was introduced to stop horses injuring their backs when they dropped their hind legs in the water after landing a bit short.
Not only do the RSPCA know this, but ask any jockey!
If that’s the case why have so many courses dispensed with them? I notice that Sandown’s has gone & Chepstow’s & the one in front of the stands that was so spectacular at Haydock. Don’t get me on the subject of Haydock……
Think Sandown’s water jump still exists, though its invisible from the stands and doesn’t serve any purpose imo
Think Sandown’s water jump still exists, though its invisible from the stands and doesn’t serve any purpose imo
Yep Sandown’s is still there – it’s the fence before the railway fences.
For me the most pointless "water" jump is Huntingdon’s, where the water has been replaced by a strip of bright blue astroturf.
http://www.ors-racing.co.uk/Images/General/Huntingdon101002Track2_400.jpg
Arguably more dangerous than the real thing as the astroturf would be slippy.
Think Sandown’s water jump still exists, though its invisible from the stands and doesn’t serve any purpose imo
Yes, I wonder about that too. Lingfield haven’t had one for years – Plumpton got rid of theirs. Fontwell haven’t had one for years either.
I do agree there’s some merit when they are in front of the stands such as at Newbury and Aintree and other places.
I might be wrong but the rules at one point said there HAD to be a water jump on each circuit of a chase course but once that rule was dropped, courses were free to do as they saw fit.
I wonder if water jumps need more maintenance.
I was wondering about the maintenance aspect too & the blue Astroturf rather backs that up.
At the moment mosquitoes are not a problem in the UK but if warming continues toxic ones might eventually be a problem in the South, but racecourses do not have that excuse at the moment.Stratford only recently (last couple of years iirc) put in a water jump just after the finish line so someone thinks they’re a good idea. I quite like them and think they give the horses a little break from the higher jumps.
Guess they’re mostly a leftover from the true "steeple chasing" days when everything was across country and you’d quite likely be jumping streams and water ditches.
Courses with Water Jumps
Aintree
Cartmel
Cheltenham
Doncaster
Exeter
Hexham
Huntingdon (virtual)
Leicester
Ludlow
Newbury
Perth
Sandown
Stratford
WincantonCourses without Water Jumps
Ascot
Ayr
Bangor
Carlisle
Catterick
Chepstow
Fakenham
Ffos Las
Folkestone
Fontwell
Haydock
Hereford
Kelso
Lingfield
Kempton
Market Rasen
Musselburgh
Newcastle
Newton Abbot
Plumpton
Sedgefield
Southwell
Taunton
Towcester
Uttoxeter
Warwick
Wetherby
Worcester....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
Caveat to espmadrid’s list, Aintree’s Water Jump only used in races over the National fences, not Mildmay.
I once read (someone may confirm or correct this) but the last Water Jump in Ireland to be removed was Leopardstown circa 1966. France on the other hand love their "Rivier de Tribunes"
Point-to-point courses with Water Jumps
– Kimble
– TweseldownKimble’s is a proper, big, hole in the ground-type water jump from the old days, as befits a famous old line of almost exactly a century’s standing. It has killed precisely no horses, never mind wrecked any, in all the time I’ve followed Pointing.
Kimble’s solitary meeting takes place this Easter Saturday and a visit is hugely recommended – and not just to see the water jump in use.
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.
Caveat to espmadrid’s list, Aintree’s Water Jump only used in races over the National fences, not Mildmay.
I’d need to check when precisely that changed, as time was that the water was used for Mildmay races also.
One of my tapes (remember them?) of audio recordings from Radio 2 / Five Live’s Aintree coverage over the years features the 1989 Captain Morgan Chase, as it then was, with Bonalma skying the water jump like few before or since. "He thought it was Bechers Brook!", Peter Bromley exclaimed.
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.
Caveat to espmadrid’s list, Aintree’s Water Jump only used in races over the National fences, not Mildmay.
I’d need to check when precisely that changed, as time was that the water was used for Mildmay races also.
One of my tapes (remember them?) of audio recordings from Radio 2 / Five Live’s Aintree coverage over the years features the 1989 Captain Morgan Chase, as it then was, with Bonalma skying the water jump like few before or since. "He thought it was Bechers Brook!", Peter Bromley exclaimed.
gc
Your memory is correct GC. The Water Jump was used in all chases (Mildmay & National) until the Mildmay course was realigned in the early 1990’s, after which Mildmay course chases were Water free.
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