What Is Steeplechasing Or Today’s National Hunt Racing.
Steeple chasing has a long and great history, known today as National Hunt Racing it has come a long way from it’s humble beginings in the 1700′s in Ireland.
The story goes in 1752 two great friends and rivals a Mr. Cornelius O’Callaghan and Mr. Edmund Blake, after a days fox hunting had a little to much to drink on the way home in County Cork Ireland, had a heated discussion on who have the best horse for hunting.
To settle this dispute they decided to have a race, due to the terrain they choose to race between two church steeples due to being an excellent visible marker of the starting and finishing point, beginning at St. John’s Protestant Church in Buttevant to St. Mary’s in Doneraile, 4.5miles (7km) away. (Situated between Limerick and Cork in Southern Ireland)
Now between these two points were many obstacles, including walls, hedges and ditches. I can only imagine that the alcohol helped to cloud the danger of such a race, especially when it was reported that the winner even rode into the Church on his horse at the finish.
Unfortunately it seemed that there was a funeral taking place and the priest was not very amused at his obvious over excitement at not only winning, but actually finishing at all.
I can only guess that this story was well circulated at the time and helped the popularity of racing hunting horses between two church steeples hence the name ‘steeplechasing’ today.
Steeplechase became more and more popular over the years and the first recorded steeplechase in England over a properly prepared course, when the jumps were measured prepared and actually know beforehand was in 1810 held at Bedlam (North Yorkshire).
It wasn’t until 20 years later in 1830 that the first recognised National Steeplechase called the ‘St Albans’ was run in Bedfordshire between Bury Orchard to the Obelisk found in Wrest Park.
This race was over 4 miles and was won in a time of 16 minutes 25 secounds the winner ‘The Wonder’ was owned by Lord Ranelagh whom seemed to be a very well know equivalent of a modern day playboy.
Only in the 1860′s when the ‘National Hunt Committee’ was formed did steeplechasing really start to take off. They organised an annual running of the ‘National Hunt Meeting’ which took it’s place
in the racing calendar. This meeting changed race course venues yearly until in 1904 & 1905 when Cheltenham hosted both years. The meeting then moved to Warwick for 5 years until returning to Cheltenham where it is still hosted and just as famous and important to this very day.
Today’s Basic National Hunt Races.
These are mainly split into 2
Steeplechase Races – distances 2mile – 4.5 miles (fences are at least 4.5 ft high)
Hurdle Races - distances are 2-3.5 miles (fences 3.5 +)
(Apart from national hunt flat races / know as bumpers these races are flat races, that have yet competed over obstacles or in flat races.) Distances 1.5 – 2.5 miles
Over the coming Months I will go into a lot more depth of how National Hunt races are run, the rules and runners. Understanding where it started and what it is today is a very important step, because with this knowledge you can start to know why things happen then ultimately make the informed decisions.
Once you know and understand these facts they are not only fascinating but you can use them to make money by predicting winners, or help you understand some of the bets we have and why.
Best Wishes for now.
Harry
The Bet Plan