This weekend marks the start of the autumn Jumps calendar, with the advent of the first Pattern event of the season, and a quality card over two days at Chepstow. Yet what an anticlimax it will feel. Despite everyone's best intentions to keep the good ship racing rolling forward, it's hard to feel any satisfaction in a sport that has been denied much of its joie de vivre through the prevention of ...
Irrespective of where you sit in the racing pyramid of excellence, there's no-one in our sport that doesn't dream of winning the Grand National. It's the race we all grew up watching, astride the armchair, riding a finish like Ron Barry, Jonjo O'Neill, AP McCoy, Dickie Johnson or Jack Tudor, depending on your age.
The Grand National is the one race each year across the UK and Ireland that g...
The days are getting shorter and summer is winding down. It is the time of year that horse racing fans turn their attentions from fast-paced Flat racing and focus on the joys of the Jumps season.
Although the Jumps season began on July 1, the core season begins in next month as trainers ramp up the National Hunt campaign. Some of the biggest horse festivals in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
Autumn is a time of keen anticipation among National Hunt racing fans, none more so than Point-to-Point fans who will have to wait only until the end of October to follow the young equine and human talent being nurtured in the amateur ranks. This season's Point-to-Point calendar will start on October 24, its earliest ever, to compensate for the abrupt termination of the spring campaign due to Covi...
The National Hunt season is already two months old, although October heralds the start of the higher grade races that punctuate some of the biggest meetings during the campaign. Amongst the highlights in October will be the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle at Chepstow, and the Old Roan Chase at Aintree, as well as Cheltenham's opening two day fixture.
Regarded as one of the most pre...
Ogbourne Maizey trainer Emma Lavelle has continued the tremendous form of her summer Jumps team since the season's late start on July 1st, clocking a fifth winner from 15 runners at Market Rasen earlier this week, when Enniscoffey Oscar stayed on to win the 0-140 Handicap Hurdle by 1 1/4 lengths. Emma's purple patch this month has allowed her a 33% strike rate to be envied by any stable.
No...
The announcement this week of the fixture list for the winter ahead confirms that Barbury will stage 3 fixtures again, starting with the International on Sunday December 13.
The Vine & Craven, which has fallen foul of the weather in each of the past 2 years, will take place on Sunday February 7 whilst the final Tedworth fixture will coincide with the sport's most valuable fixture at And...
Emma Lavelle isn't one to let the grass grow under her feet, judged from the well-being of her string if today's results from Newton Abbot are anything to go by. The Marlborough trainer maintained her 50% strike record with a treble, punctuated by a second from her other runner at the West Country's first fixture of the belated new season.
Names you might not normally associate with Summer ...
Who Dares Wins victory in the closing race of this year’s Royal Ascot has only confirmed what many shrewd racewatchers have clocked already; Alan King’s Barbury stable is a force to be reckoned with at Flat racing’s top table. When was the last time a so-called Jumps trainer enjoyed 3 winners at Britain’s most prestigious fixture? Truly, to label Alan solely as a Jumps trai...
Ilona Barnett, Fixture Secretary to the prestigious International fixture at Barbury, has been elected to the post of Chair of the Point-to-Point Secretaries Association, which also offers a seat on the sport's governing body, the Point-to-Point Authority, to represent the interests of the various 170 or so fixtures across the UK.
The International fixture, a brainchild of David Minton and leadin...
The giant continent that is Australia is mad keen on its racing. There are 400 racecourses across every state and Tasmania too, supporting over 30,000 horses in training. And recent British and Irish success in the world-famous Melbourne Cup has cemented focus in Northern Hemisphere owners and trainers on the riches available in Oz.
Sadly though, Jump racing represents less than 2% of the racing ...
During lockdown, most businesses have focused on trying to keep afloat, whilst applauding the efforts of the medical professionals keeping us healthy. But one racing business has used its expertise to support the collective national effort.
The leading racing silks maker in Europe, Allertons, has changed course during the coronavirus crisis to support local hospitals and provide hundreds of...
New Zealand, a country better known among sports fans for its rugby and cricket, has a thriving racing sector too. The “land of the long white cloud” – a translation of the Maori title for Aotearoa, reflects the country’s temperate climate, where the greenery is very conducive to breeding top-flight race and sport horses.
Jump racing is growing in popularity in New Zealand...
A report after last weekend's racing drew attention to a territory where it would surprise most to learn that the richest Jumps race in the world is not the Grand National, nor even one of the prestigious steeplechases in France, whose racing is funded by a state-run tote. Actually, the most valuable Jumps event in the world is in a country barely known for Jump racing - Japan.
Japan, a country w...
France Galop tentatively set horse racing return for May 11
Horse racing fans can rejoice, at least in France, as the country could resume events in May. It was announced yesterday that France Galop could reinstate horse racing from May 11, ending an almost two-month suspension of races in Europe. Horse racing punters, starved to a diet of All-Weather US racing, are growing with excitement ...
America is the land of opportunity, yet despite that, Jump racing has only ever caught on in the United States, and even then, only in states bordering the eastern seaboard. Venture west or into the central states, and Jumping will be seen as “some quirky British thing”.
Yet, among the 26 courses staging steeplechasing and timber races in the US, there is a strong following and a youn...
Barbury and the surrounding area is something of a hotspot for the training of National Hunt racehorses. The premier event in the season last month, the Cheltenham Festival, is where everyone involved in the sport wants to have a winner. Lambourn Downs trainers were well represented, with 46 runners and 5 winners, whilst Wiltshire drew a blank from 19 runners.
Let's take a look at how they got on...
Due to retirement an opportunity has arisen at The Barbury Castle Estate near Marlborough, Wiltshire. The Estate extends to c.2,200 acres and its operations comprises: Livestock and arable (mainly contracted out) farming, maintaining gallops and other responsibilities for a large horse racing business, a highly regarded shoot, forestry, conservation, property letting and preservation.
Barb...
With the news that Ireland’s attempt at closed doors racing has become a short-lived attempt to outwit the virus, western Europe is a wasteland for sporting endeavour, with no nation permitting organised sport at any level. Even the Olympics has capitulated in the path of the all-conquering Coronavirus.
The shutdown serves as a reminder that enjoying racing need not be limited to the Britis...
With the news that all racing in the UK been cancelled due to Coronavirus, Peter Watton from OddsMonkey explains what this could mean for the sport — and the people that rely on it to earn their living.
Looking out over the Marlborough Downs on these past few wonderful Spring days, it seems unreal to hear of the further spread of COVID-19. The virus is set to cause huge damage to the world'...
This weekend marks the start of the autumn Jumps calendar, with the advent of the first Pattern event of the season, and a quality card over two days at Chepstow. Yet what an anticlimax it will feel. Despite everyone's best intentions to keep the good ship racing rolling forward, it's hard to feel any satisfaction in a sport that has been denied much of its joie de vivre through the prevention of ...
Irrespective of where you sit in the racing pyramid of excellence, there's no-one in our sport that doesn't dream of winning the Grand National. It's the race we all grew up watching, astride the armchair, riding a finish like Ron Barry, Jonjo O'Neill, AP McCoy, Dickie Johnson or Jack Tudor, depending on your age.
The Grand National is the one race each year across the UK and Ireland that g...
The days are getting shorter and summer is winding down. It is the time of year that horse racing fans turn their attentions from fast-paced Flat racing and focus on the joys of the Jumps season.
Although the Jumps season began on July 1, the core season begins in next month as trainers ramp up the National Hunt campaign. Some of the biggest horse festivals in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
Autumn is a time of keen anticipation among National Hunt racing fans, none more so than Point-to-Point fans who will have to wait only until the end of October to follow the young equine and human talent being nurtured in the amateur ranks. This season's Point-to-Point calendar will start on October 24, its earliest ever, to compensate for the abrupt termination of the spring campaign due to Covi...
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