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In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and the Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: hurdles and steeplechases. Alongside these there are "bumpers", which are National Hunt flat races. In a hurdles race, the horses jump over obstacles called hurdles; in a steeplechase the horses jump over a variety of obstacles that can include plain fences, water jump or an open ditch. In the UK the biggest National Hunt events of the year are generally considered to be the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Rupert "Ruby" Walsh is an Irish former jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen. Walsh is the third most prolific winner in British and Irish jump racing history behind only Sir Anthony McCoy and Richard Johnson.
Barry Geraghty is a retired Irish jockey. He is the second most successful jockey of all time at the Cheltenham Festival.
A steeplechase is a distance horse race in which competitors are required to jump diverse fence and ditch obstacles. Steeplechasing is primarily conducted in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia and France. The name is derived from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside.
Half Caste was a British racehorse who won the Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree in 1859, against a field of twenty horses. The race was very closely run and Half Caste won by only a short neck from Jean Du Quesne.
The Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris is a Group 1 steeplechase in France which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Auteuil over a distance of 6,000 metres, and during its running there are twenty-three fences to be jumped. It is the richest and most prestigious jumps race in France, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late May.
The Fellow (1985–2008) was an AQPS top-class National Hunt racehorse in the early 1990s. He won the 1994 Cheltenham Gold Cup and narrowly lost the 1991 and 1992 renewals. He also won the 1991 and 1992 King George VI Chase and the 1991 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris. Along with Mandarin, he is one of only two horses to win both the latter race and the Gold Cup. A full brother to French Horse of the Century Al Capone II, The Fellow was trained in France by François Doumen, ridden by the Polish jockey Adam Kondrat, and owned by the Marquesa De Moratalla.
AQPS, translated as "Other than Thoroughbred", is a general term used in France to refer to horses not listed as Thoroughbreds but destined to race. Anglo-Arabians, Selle Français, and French Trotters plus all other crossbreds can be qualified, in theory, as AQPS. However in practical terms an AQPS is akin to a Thoroughbred but not eligible to that breed's stud-book. The designation usually means one parent is not listed in the Thoroughbred stud book and almost always applies to those horses with Selle Français breeding in the dam line, be it very remote through repeated crosses with TB stallions. Reverse crosses are also performed by crossing a Thoroughbred mare with an AQPS-approved stallion, and this has met with success on the race-track.
Paul Frank Nicholls is a British National Hunt horse trainer with stables at Ditcheat, Somerset. A relatively successful jump jockey, Nicholls has become the leading National Hunt trainer of his generation, finishing the 2007–08 season with 155 winners and a record £4 million in prize money. To date, he has trained over 3000 winners, won the 2012 Grand National, four Cheltenham Gold Cups and has been crowned British jump racing Champion Trainer eleven times.
The Prix Ferdinand Dufaure is a Group 1 steeplechase in France which is open to four-year-old horses. It is run at Auteuil over a distance of 4,100 metres, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late May.
Frederick Thomas Winter, was a British National Hunt racing racehorse jockey and trainer. He was British jump racing Champion Jockey four times and British jump racing Champion Trainer eight times. He is the only person to have won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Grand National as both jockey and trainer. Winter won the Grand National four times, as a jockey in 1957 (Sundew) and 1962 (Kilmore), and as a trainer in 1965 and 1966 (Anglo).
Troytown (1913-1920) was a racehorse regarded as one of the greatest early 20th century National Hunt performers along with Jerry M. His career was cut short by a fatal fall in the 1920 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris. The habit of bludgeoning his way through fences, which caused the accident, had long been with Troytown. When he won the 1920 Grand National, he almost carted his amateur jockey Jack Anthony round the track and survived two mistakes. Before that, he had won once in his native Ireland, taken the Champion Chase at Aintree in 1919 and made every yard to win the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris that season. Troytown was ridden by Anthony Escott when he won the Grand Steeple Chase de Paris in 1919. Escott had ridden third in the English Grand National in that same year on a horse called Pollen. The winner was Ernie Piggot on Poethlyn. Both of these horses were trained by Harry Escott at his stables in Lewes. He was Anthony Escott's father.
Davy Russell is an Irish National Hunt jockey. He has been Irish jump racing Champion Jockey three times, and has won the Grand National (twice), the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.
Long Run is a retired National Hunt racehorse owned by Robert Waley-Cohen and trained during his racing career by Nicky Henderson in Great Britain and later by his owner.
Nina Carberry is a retired Irish female National Hunt jockey. She hails from a racing family and is the daughter of jockey Tommy Carberry.
Nononito was a French champion Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. A specialist stayer, he ran twenty-two times on the flat and thirteen times over hurdles in a career which lasted from 1994 until 1998. Although he won only three of his flat races, he was noted for his consistency and ran prominently in numerous top class staying events in France and England. In 1996 he recorded his most important victory in the Group One Prix du Cadran and was awarded the title of European Champion Stayer at the Cartier Racing Awards. After his retirement from racing he had some success at stud as a sire of jump racers before his death in 2007.
Bula (1965–1977) was a British National Hunt horse who won two Champion Hurdles and many other top races over hurdles and later over fences. He ran during what is considered a ‘golden period’ for two mile hurdlers in the 1970s, which featured such champions as Persian War, Comedy Of Errors, Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon. Bula was “a remarkably consistent, versatile and durable jumper” and was known for his come-from-behind style.
Auroras Encore is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2013 Grand National. In a racing career which lasted from February 2007 until January 2014 he won two hurdle races and six steeplechases from forty-seven starts.
Noel Fehily is a retired Irish professional horse racing jockey. Throughout his professional career, he has enjoyed substantial success including the King George VI Chase and Champion Hurdle, despite enduring significant injuries.
Native River is an Irish-bred, British-trained, Thoroughbred racehorse who races under National Hunt rules. He is a specialist long-distance steeplechaser known for his front-running style and apparently inexhaustible stamina. He won three minor hurdle races but began to show better form in the 2015/16 when taking the Worcester Novices' Chase and the Mildmay Novices' Chase. He emerged as a top-class steeplechaser in the following season when he won the Hennessy Gold Cup, Welsh Grand National and Denman Chase as well as finishing third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. In the spring of 2018 he won a second Denman Chase before recording his biggest win in the 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
References
- ↑ "Pieux defies injury to win Grand Steeple-Chase". Racing Post . 24 May 2009. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
- ↑ "Remember Rose". Racing Post. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
