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The erstwhile Mercedes-Benz meeting at Chepstow wins this all day long for me.
“The jumps is back!” “It’s the start of the jumps!” No, it bloody isn’t.
Insisting otherwise is an insult to those courses operating during the summer which have increased the quality and scope of their offer year on year in the (count them) 25 years since summer jumping commenced, and frequently provide more interesting, charming, storied fare than the second and third strings of the behemoth yards going for short-of-top-class Chepstow handicaps and Graded novices as their forebears did, Because That’s What We’ve Always Done And Always Will.
It’s an argument that maintains that jumps racing, and the broadcasting thereof, hasn’t moved on a day since the BBC last covered the meeting in 2005, all evidence to the contrary.
Its continued place in the narrative of unearthing that season’s Festival winners is thoroughly undeserved, too. You have to go back to Altior in October 2015 to find the last horse to win at this Chepstow Saturday fixture and then also at Cheltenham five months later.
It’s basically not all that, as the young folk say; and I’d far rather fill the eyes with the beautiful views and homespun joys of Hexham on the same raceday.
Incidentally, Chepstow doesn’t even win out as the nicest raceday experience one could enjoy in Monmouthshire, as anyone who’s been to the Curre & Llangibby point-to-points at neighbouring Howick will confirm.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I STRONGLY dislike All Weather Jumps, the best thing they did was get rid of it. Also summer jumps as the ground might be too firm for them.
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.Summer jumps generally – The Pipe horses hated going that clip.
Just currently it’s strangely The pinnacle of jumping’s finest The Cheltenham Gold Cup. I would rather not mention why – it might just upset a few. I’ll just say that old loves can tarnish when they break the rules.Be interested to read your reasons Gamble; the GC really is the ultimate prize, but like the festival in general it has become a monster.
What I like about forums are tales and questions of the unexpected. A self feeding monster of insatiable size Befair, that appears far too large for its boots these days; the darling on the hill, the King Kong sucking the lifeblood out and downgrading all the other twenty seven equally heroic handmaiden races.
What is unusual is, its not the first main reason that first came to my mind.
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What’s the main reason?
The feeding of the five thousand is a biblical story surrounding two loaves and five fishes and beautifully told.
The misdirection of the 150,000 is a modern tale
involving a blond haired
pied piper and a Cheltenham cliff assured ‘as safe as houses.’Soon after the the crowd had burst into a frenzy of cheering, excitedly clapping the winner in, they took out their hankies and slowly began to COUGH and just at that exact moment King Kong was seen toppling from his high pedestal – and they all scattered and ran for their lives
I STRONGLY dislike All Weather Jumps, the best thing they did was get rid of it. Also summer jumps as the ground might be too firm for them.
Three weeks shy of the 27th anniversary of the last ever artificial surface hurdle in this country (and War Beat’s conspicuously graphic demise), I think you can rest assured that that mode of racing isn’t coming back any time soon. Barring a steeplechase on dirt at Honzrath in Germany most years if not quite annually, there’s negligible appetite for it elsewhere in mainland Europe either.
The mention of summer jumping reminds me of another reason for my dislike of that Chepstow October meeting, and more broadly of a lot of jumps racing in October generally. Provision of sufficient watering facilities is an absolute prerequisite for courses wanting to race over jumps from June to September – no watering, no fixtures granted.
No such edict exists for October fixtures, when in many cases it probably ought to. Only last year, the good to soft ground promised for the Chepstow fixture proved to be anything but, with conditions officially changed to good two races into the Friday card of what is nowadays a two-day fixture. Even that analysis didn’t sit entirely right with the evidence of a raft of late non-runners and a 103-rated animal breaking the 3m chase course record (with the actual race distance the same as advertised).
Simply put, I’d be far happier running something around Cartmel in mid-July than Chepstow nearly three months later.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I don’t like all weather racing either, but the question was “Which race do you irrationally dislike?” so I answered it with a race.
“The Clarence House Chase – one of the highlights of the season when it was a limited handicap, now usually the least interesting graded race on the UK calendar.”
Great call. It was a bit like a 2m Hennessey attracting some of the top dogs. Well Chief v Thisthatandtother, Isio v Azertyuiop. Epics.
BUY THE SUN
Mike if you want to put summer jumps into a one race summary then the Summer National, although Gray really sums it up with the going being too hard to jump on. Epsom Dash is another symbolism of the flat, I just find it boring.
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.I dont want to sully this thread too much with my offbeat meanderings, or hijack it, or even detract from the highly interesting refurbished column overpage, but two strange thoughts came to me as I awoke this morning in that rather pleasant confusing time of half conscious reverie where one gradually gets acquainted with oneself, and leaves the endless possibilities of the dreamworld behind.
The first was about the passing of Captain Tom and the lack of accurate reporting thereto, and the second centred around the surprising presence of King Kong at Cheltenham racecourse, and the vexing supplementary of who actually allowed this gargantuan beast in, or even allowed him a ticket, to run wild on his awful rampage ?
Of course, I was rather tired last night after watching the spectacular downfall of John De Lorean, and much later realised my omission at teeth time, in the telling of the Cheltenhan event.
That moment of extreme terrifying calm, when the crowd gasps, witnessed often in slow motion just before a cataclysmic event happens, as time is transfixed in suspended animation as it takes in and literally holds its second hand, as it grasps the awfulness of the spectacle enfolding before it’s eyes.
We wont go into too much detail as there is a lack of sun today, but suffice it to note that there are certain places and things that can evidence a scarring after a notable happening, and I will if you allow me, further extrapolate with the old list…in no particular order
The Tavern in the town Birmingham
King Cross
Heysel stadium
The Grand Hotel
Scarborough ( some will consider this fiction)
The Manchester Arena
The poor old dented Gold Cup
Hopefully the Cup will not linger too many years in the blemished Association above, and the kink of its scarring will be removed, as I do rather like getting me ‘ol bins out.🧐
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gamble, you don’t half talk some bollocks at times
You’ve posted enough good stuff in the lounge in the past though, and that’s where your talents are more suited imo
Leave the serious stuff to serious writers…. and I obviously don’t count myself in the latter! I’m much more at home lounging aboutKind regards
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I may have given you a cryptic clue for a tip in the upcoming race at Warwick there, gamble
2.32 on the machine
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