Author: G C

The Scottish Grand National Festival is staged annually at Ayr Racecourse, on the south west coast of Scotland, on a Friday and Saturday in April. Traditionally, the meeting takes place just seven days after the Grand National Festival at Aintree but, while it is predictably overshadowed by its more illustrious, south-of-the border counterpart, it is, by some way, the most valuable National Hunt Festival in Scotland.

 

Aside from the feature race, the Scottish Grand National, the 15 races staged over the two days include the QTS Scottish Champion Hurdle, the Jordan Electrics Ltd Future Champion Novices’ Chase, the Hillhouse Quarry Handicap Chase, the Scotty Brand Handicap Chase and Dawn Homes Novices’ Handicap Chase and are collectively worth £714,000 in prize money. The Dawn Homes Novices’ Handicap Chase, run over 3 miles and worth £100,000 in prize money, was a new addition to the programme in 2018, joining the Scottish Grand National and the QTS Scottish Champion Hurdle as the third race offering six-figure prize money on the second day.

 

The feature race, the Scottish Grand National, was run for the first time at Ayr, over its current distance of 3 miles 7 furlongs and 176 yards, in 1965, following the closure of Bogside Racecourse. Open to horses aged five years and upwards, the Scottish Grand National has a safety limit of 30 and is often almost as competitive as the Grand National proper, befitting the most valuable National Hunt race in Scotland, with £215,000 in prize money.

 

Indeed, since the Scottish Grand National moved to its current venue, several horses have tasted victory at Ayr and Aintree. Little Polveir won the Scottish Grand National for John Edwards in 1987 and the Grand National proper for Toby Balding in 1989. Earth Summit, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, won the Scottish Grand National in 1994, the Welsh Grand National in 1997 and the Grand National proper in 1998. However, fresh from his second win in the Grand National, under top weight of 12 stone, in 1974, Red Rum carried 11st 13lb to victory in the Scottish Grand National just three weeks later and remains the only horse to win both races in the same season.

Nowadays known, for sponsorship purposes, as the 32Red Winter Festival, the King George VI Chase Meeting at Kempton Park has been a hugely popular fixture for many years and, according to one recent estimate, accounts for 20% of the entire annual attendance at the Sunbury-on-Thames course. The King George VI Chase was inaugurated in February, 1937, in honour of the new British monarch, King George VI, who unexpectedly succeeded to the throne following the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII, the previous December. Consequently, the race was run just twice prior to the outbreak of World War II but, on its return in 1947, was moved to its traditional Boxing Day date and has provided essential festive season viewing ever since.

 

The King George VI Chase, a Grade 1 steeplechase run over 3 miles and open to horses aged four years and upwards, is second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup in terms of prestige and, over the years, has been won by some of the finest staying ‘chasers in the history of National Hunt racing. The roll of honour includes Arkle, Wayward Lad (three times), Burrough Hill Lad, Desert Orchid (four times) and, of course, Kauto Star (five times).

 

Of course, the King George VI Chase is just the highlight of the Boxing Day card, which also includes the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle and the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, while day two of the 32Red Winter Festival, on December 27, also features significant races in the form of the Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase and the Desert Orchid Chase, both Grade 2 events run over the minimum distance of 2 miles.

 

The Christmas Hurdle, sponsored by online gambling operator Unibet, is not only a prestigious and valuable contest in its own right but, despite being run on a practically flat, right-handed course, quite unlike the New Course at Cheltenham, has proved a bona fide trial for the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. All in all, five horses that have won the Christmas Hurdle in its current guise – Lanzarote in 1973, Dawn Run in 1983, Kribensis in 1989, Faugheen in 2014 and Buveur D’Air in 2017 – went on to win the most prestigious event over the smaller obstacles in the British National Hunt calendar the following March. The 2016 winner, Yanworth, was sent off 2/1 favourite for the Champion Hurdle in 2017, but could only plug on to finish a never dangerous seventh and was subsequently disqualified after testing positive for the banned anti-inflammatory drug triamcinolone acetonide.

The Ladbrokes Winter Carnival is the leading National Hunt meeting of the season held at Newbury Racecourse in Berkshire in South East England. The meeting takes place on a Friday and Saturday in late November or early December and, for years, was known as the Hennessy Meeting, until the family synonymous with cognac ended its sponsorship in 2016.

 

The highlight of the first day is the Ladbrokes Long Distance Hurdle, a Grade 2 contest run over 3 miles and 52 yards on the galloping hurdle course at Newbury and open to horses aged four years and upwards. The Ladbrokes Long Distance Hurdle was inaugurated in 1990 and, nowadays, is a recognised trial for the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. In recent years, the race has been won by Baracouda (twice), Inglis Drever (three times), Big Buck’s (four times) and Thistlecrack.

 

The highlight of the second day, the Ladbrokes Trophy, formerly the Hennessy Gold Cup, is Grade 3 handicap steeplechase run over 3 miles 2½ furlongs and open to horses aged four years and upwards. The race was inaugurated at Cheltenham, in 1957, before being transferred to Newbury three years later and, prior to 2016, its sponsorship had been passed down through eight generations of the Hennessy family.

 

Despite being a handicap, the Ladbrokes Trophy is a recognised trial for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and its roll of honour includes Arkle, who carried 12st 7lb to victory in both 1964 and 1965, Burrough Hill Lad, who carried 12st 0lb in 1984 and Denman, who carried 11st 12lb in both 2007 and 2009. In 2014/15, Many Clouds became the first horse to complete the Hennessy Gold Cup – Grand National double in the same season.

The International Meeting, often known, simply, as ‘The International’, is a two-day fixture held on a Friday and Saturday in the middle of December at Cheltenham Racecourse in Gloucestershire in South West England. The fixture takes its name from the feature race, the International Hurdle, currently sponsored by online gambling operator, Unibet, which takes place on the second day, although the whole weekend has a more ‘international’ feel to it than you might otherwise expect to find in the Cotswolds.

 

The highlight of the opening day, for example, is the Glenfarclas Country Handicap Steeple Chase, which concludes a series of ten similar races – including the oldest and most difficult of them all, the Velka Pardubika in the Czech Republic – that constitute the Crystal Cup European Cross Country Challenge. Run over 3 miles 6 furlongs on a twisting, turning course of banks, ditches, hedges and rails, the Glenfarclas Country Handicap Steeple Chase is the ideal finale of series designed to find the finest horses and horsemen in the specialist discipline of cross country.

 

On the second day, the International Hurdle is a Grade 2 contest run over 2 miles and 79 yards, and eight conventional flights of hurdles, on the New Course at Prestbury Park and open to horses aged four years and upwards. The race is, nonetheless, a recognised trial for the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and was, in fact, inaugurated as the Cheltenham Trial Hurdle in 1963. The last horse to win both races in the same season was Rooster Booster in 2002/03, but My Tent Or Yours, the winner in 2017, had previously finished runner-up in the Champion Hurdle in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

 

Reigning Champion Jockey Richard Johnson, who rode Rooster Booster, is the most successful jockey in the history of the International Hurdle with six wins.

The supporting card for the International Hurdle also includes the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup, a Grade 3 handicap steeplechase run over 2 miles and 5 furlongs on the New Course and inaugurated in the same year as the International Hurdle, as the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup. The race is open to horses aged four years and upwards and is often contested by horses that ran in the Betvictor Gold Cup at the previous November Meeting at Cheltenham.