The Mascot Grand National was an annual race between mascots of various British sports teams as well as corporate mascots. It was contested from 1999 to 2010 at Huntingdon Racecourse and in 2012 and 2013 at Kempton Park Racecourse. [1] Up to 100 mascots in full-body costumes took part in the races. [2] The short races were along the final furlong of the courses, with low hurdles (approximately 40 cm high). The mascots' entry fees were donated to charity. [3]
In 2010, many mascots, especially those from professional football clubs, boycotted the race over the way it was organised and the fact that mascots from any field could enter even if they were not 'day in-day out' performers. [4]
Cheltenham Racecourse at Prestbury Park, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, hosts National Hunt horse racing. Racing at Cheltenham took place in 1815, but comprised only minor flat races on Nottingham Hill. The first racing on Cleeve Hill was on Tuesday 25 August 1818 when the opening race was won by Miss Tidmarsh, owned by Mr E Jones. It was a year later when the results were printed in the Racing Calendar when a programme of flat racing was watched by the Duke of Gloucester who donated 100 Guineas to the prize fund. By 1831 races were being staged at Prestbury, although not on the present day course. In 1834 the Grand Annual Steeplechase was run for the first time. In 1839 Lottery won the Grand Annual having previously won the first Aintree Grand National. In 1840 the meeting transferred to Andoversford for a brief period, only to return to Prestbury in 1847. 1902 was a notable year in that racing moved to the present course at Prestbury Park. The new stands were completed in 1914 and the present day Festival races, as we know them, began to take shape. The Cheltenham Gold Cup, over 3 ¼ miles, was run for the first time in 1924, with the Champion Hurdle following in 1927.
Kempton Park Racecourse is a horse racing track together with a licensed entertainment and conference venue in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England, near the border with Greater London; it is 16 miles south-west of Charing Cross in central London. The site has 210 acres of flat grassland surrounded by woodland with two lakes in its centre. Its entrance borders Kempton Park railway station which was created for racegoers on a branch line from London Waterloo, via Clapham Junction.
Foinavon (1958–1971) was an Irish racehorse. He won the Grand National in 1967 at odds of 100/1 after the rest of the field fell, refused or were hampered or brought down in a mêlée at the 23rd fence. The fence was officially named after Foinavon in 1984.
Jonathan Ronald James Forte is a former professional footballer who played as a striker; he last played for League Two club Exeter City.
The Long Walk Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of about 3 miles and 1 furlong, and during its running there are twelve hurdles to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in December.
Chepstow Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing course located just north of the town of Chepstow in Monmouthshire, Wales, near the southern end of the Wye Valley and close to the border with England. It is one of 16 racecourses operated by the Arena Racing Company and is home of the richest race in Wales, the Coral Welsh Grand National.
The Leopardstown 2,000 Guineas Trial Stakes is a Group 3 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and geldings. It is run over a distance of 7 furlongs (1,408 metres) at Leopardstown in March or April.
Andre Alexander-George Blackman is an English footballer who last played for Dulwich Hamlet.
Georgie Francomb is an English professional footballer who plays for Dorking Wanderers. He can also play at right-back.
Darren Charles Owen is a horse racing commentator, born 3 June 1967 in St. Asaph, North Wales.
Binocular, foaled on 17 March 2004 in France, is a French thoroughbred retired racehorse. He was sired by Enrique out of the mare Bleu Ciel Et Blanc. He is owned by J. P. McManus and trained by Nicky Henderson. His primary jockey is Tony McCoy.
Daniel Philliskirk is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Southport on loan from National League club AFC Fylde.
Jordan John Obita is an English professional footballer who plays for Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership.
Craig Tony Calver is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Saffron Walden Town.
Keanu-Marqheal Marsh-Brown is a professional footballer who plays as a attacking midfielder or winger for Malaysia Super League club Kuching City.
Windsor Football Club is an English football club formed in 2011 after Windsor & Eton folded. The club are current members of the Combined Counties League Division One and play at the Holloways Park ground in Beaconsfield. The club is affiliated to the Berks & Bucks Football Association.
Bobs Worth was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. He won the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle in 2011, the RSA Chase in 2012 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2013 at the Cheltenham Festival, making him the first horse since Flyingbolt in the 1960s to win three different races at consecutive Cheltenham Festivals. In 2012, he also won the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury. Bobs Worth was trained by Nicky Henderson, owned by the Not Afraid Partnership.
My Tent Or Yours is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse who competes in National Hunt racing and has finished second in three editions of the Champion Hurdle. In his first season, he showed promising form in National Hunt Flat races, winning on his debut and finishing second in the Champion Standard Open NH Flat Race. In the following year he was one of the best novice hurdlers in the British Isles, winning the Betfair Hurdle against more experienced rivals and the Top Novices' Hurdle at Aintree. In the 2013/2014 National Hunt season he won the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and the Christmas Hurdle and finished runner-up in the Champion Hurdle. His later career was interrupted by injury but he returned to finish second in the Champion Hurdle in 2016 and 2017. In December 2017 he returned to Cheltenham to win the International Hurdle on his seasonal debut after a protracted battle with The New One. On 9 December 2018 it was announced that My Tent Or Yours was retiring to JP McManus's Martinstown Stud.
Saffron Walden was a French-bred, Irish-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. Bred by Stavros Niarchos he fetched IR£1,200,000 as a yearling and showed considerable promise on his only run as a two-year-old when he finished second in the Killavullan Stakes. In the spring of 1999 he emerged as a top-class miler, winning the 2000 Guineas Trial Stakes before recording an emphatic victory in the Irish 2000 Guineas. He was fancied for The Derby but finished seventh and was disappointing in his two subsequent races. After being retired from racing he stood as a breeding stallion in Japan and Ireland with limited success as a sire of winners.