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Certainly for the last 30 years and probably forever.
One is for the hurdles course, the other for the steeplechase course.
It is so that the winning line in parallel with the last obstacle on the respective tracks
I think, "hats off and a tremendous reception, you have never heard one like it at Liverpool…Red Rum wins the National" by Sir Peter O’Sullevan in 1977 is better!
And if I was, not so old, and was better with computers, I would find a link and post it!
The fixture is being staged at the request of BAGS/SIS. Before the deal with TurfTV was completed the major bookmakers were faced with a number of Saturdays when they only had all weather racing available to be televised in their shops. They requested the courses aligned to them to fill the gaps, in this instance Doncaster has done so.
As has been noted already in a different thread Saturdays feature race is the Mansion House Chase, with a new name, a week later and more money.
The Welsh National was moved from the third Saturday in February to December for the 1979/80 season and was run on Dec 22nd 1979. It could have ended up being run twice in one year, but unfortunately for quiz masters the 1978/79 seasons renewal, schedualed for February 1979, was cancelled because of snow.
Brown Lad won the Irish National 3 times, ’75, ’76 and ’78. He was also second in two Gold Cups in ’76 to Royal Frolic and ’78 to Midnight Court, in addition to his hurdle race wins at the Festival which have already been posted above.
The management of Ascot have certainly done well over the past two decades, or so, in getting their races promoted to Group 1 status: the QE II, Fillies Mile, St James Palace, Coronation, Queen Anne, Prince of Wales, Golden Jubilee and Kings Stand. No other racecourse would have been able to fund the increase of prize money this has entailed. Especially as six of those named cannot be sponsored.
Rumour has it that Ascot has also been trying for a number of years to get the Hardwicke elevated to Group 1 status. The proximity of the Coronation Cup and the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud has probably thwarted their efforts so far.As AP has pointed out, there seems to be no racing related reason for the transfer of the Temple Stakes, but as Sandown have obviously wanted it off their balance sheet for a while it must be purely a financial matter.
And as AndyRAC points out Sandown’s race programme over jumps has been losing ground to its competitors for a while. Presumably the proximity of the Welsh National doomed the Mildmay Cazelet, although it did hang on for quite a while, and the Gainsborough Chase has been a casualty of the resurrected Compton (Aon) Chase at Newbury and the popularity of the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham.
On the subject of Champion Hurdlers going on to win over 3m+, Lanzarote, 1974 Champion winner, won the Long Walk in 1975 carrying 12 stone 5 lbs to victory.
The amount contributed by the sponsor can fall within a much bigger range than that, 20% or lower if the racecourse has not managed to get a sponsor with a couple of days to go, up to 70% at high profile events such as the National Hunt Festival.
Alot of sponsorships happen because the company owner or chairman is a racing fan, The Whitbread,Mackeson and Hennessy Gold Cups over jumps and the two Derby sponsors so far, Ever Ready and Vodafone all came about this way.
And I believe that Arena (owner of Wolverhampton racecourse) and Pontins (one of their sponsors) both have Trevor Hemmings as a major, if not the major, shareholder
