Author: G C

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Grand National: The numbers behind the race

Unless you’ve spent your entire life in hiding you’ll of course be well aware of the Aintree Grand National. This race, the pinnacle of National Hunt racing is an annual equine treat for us all to enjoy, and comes hot on the heels of the much anticipated Cheltenham Festival, so there is much to enjoy over months of March and April. The Grand National itself is held on Saturday 4th April at 5:15pm and has heightened interest on account of Tiger Roll’s attempt to win the Grand National for the third year running. The feat would be a first, and would finally allow Tiger Roll to eclipse the joint two in a row record that the horse currently shares with Red Rum (achieved way back in the 70’s). Since we’re on the topic of records and statistics, let’s have a stat-tastic look at some of the fascinating numerical facts that make up this prestigious race.

Starting where we left off we already have the answer to ‘who is the most successful horse in Grand National history?’. Winning in 1973, 1974 and again in 1977 Red Rum is often credited with being the horse that saved the National. To this day, Red Rum is held in the highest regard. With his first win in 1973, Red Rum took an impressive 18 seconds off the fastest Grand National at the time – set in 1935 by Reynoldstown. His time of 9 minutes 1.9 seconds is to this day, world class. Records are meant to be broken though, and as such the current fastest Grand National course time is 8 minutes 47.8 seconds , set by Mr Frisk in 1990. Will 2020 change that? Possible but not probable; Tiger Rolls winning time in 2019 was 9 minutes 1 second, so he’s surely one of the best bets for the Grand National. And who does the slowcoach award go to? Well that would be a very pedestrian 14m 53s by a horse named Lottery in the very first Grand National.

With all of this talk of winning times, perhaps a celebration of the event as a whole is more in the spirit of things. So with that in mind how about we highlight the year that saw the most finishers? Well that would be an impressive 23 finishers in 1984 when Hallo Dandy was the eventual winner. And the least finishers was 1928 when only two horses finished, one of whom (Tipperary Tim) was an 100-1 shot. What are we in racing for if not for that often elusive big win. Unlike the exchanges, Bookmakers tend to cap the ‘pie in the sky’ winner variety of horse at 100-1, and a few 100-1SPs have won the Grand National over the years. The aforementioned Tipperary Tim, and in the year after in 1929, Gregalach, Caughoo in 1947, Foinavon in 1967 and last but not least Mon Mome in 2009. Are we due another one? Conversely, the shortest priced winner was a stingy (yet correct!) Poethlyn at 11-4 in 1919. What records, if any, will the 2020 Grand National bring? We’ll soon find out.

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Racing Festivals to look forward to in 2020

Horse racing festivals – that is, major multiple-day events featuring the crème de la crème of equine talent – are staged throughout the length and breadth of United Kingdom between March and December. We’ve previewed a few selected highlights, just to whet your appetite for the coming year.

Cheltenham Festival

Tuesday, March 14 – Friday, March 17

Known in some quarters as the ‘Olympics of horse racing’, the Cheltenham Festival is the undisputed highlight of the British National Hunt season. Extended to its current, four-day format for the first time in 2005, the Festival includes four major ‘championship’ races – namely, in chronological order, the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup – plus a full supporting card of 24 high-quality races.

Aintree Festival

Thursday, April 12 – Saturday, April 14

Following hot on the heels of the Cheltenham Festival, the Aintree Festival understandable revolves around the most famous steeplechase in the world, the Grand National, run on the third and final day. However, the Aintree Festival also includes two more races – the Foxhunters’ Chase and the Topham Chase – on the celebrated Grand National Course and no fewer than ten prestigious Grade One contests in various disciplines and over various distances.

Epsom Derby Festival

Friday, June 2 – Saturday, June 3

As the name suggests, the Epsom Derby Festival centres on the running of the most valuable race in Britain, the Derby, which is run on the second day. However, the Derby is preceded, on day one, by the second fillies’ Classic, the Oaks, and the Coronation Cup – a Group One contest open to older horses and both sexes, both of which are run over the same course and distance as the Derby itself.

Royal Ascot

Tuesday, June 20 – Saturday, June 24

Ascot Racecourse, a favourite with YesBets visitors, was founded in 1711 by Queen Anne, the first recognisably modern Royal Meeting took place in 1768 and Ascot Racecourse has enjoyed Royal patronage ever since. Nowadays, the Royal Procession drive up the Straight Mile serves as a prelude to five days of world-class horse racing action, including eight Group One races, at least one of which is staged every day. Highlights include the Queen Anne Stakes, King’s Stand Stakes and St. James’s Palace Stakes on day one, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on day two, the Gold Cup – the traditional highlight of the whole week – on day three, the Commonwealth Cup and Coronation Stakes on day four and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes day five.

Goodwood Festival

Tuesday, July 28 – Saturday, August 1

Horse racing at Goodwood was the brainchild of Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond, in 1802. In the intervening centuries, the Goodwood Festival, often referred to ‘Glorious Goodwood’, has evolved into a five-day bonanza of horse racing action on the Sussex Downs. Three of the 13 Group races staged during the week – namely the Sussex Stakes, Goodwood Cup and Nassau Stakes – have been awarded Group One status and, as such, form part of the British Champions Series.

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Nunthorpe Stakes

The Nunthorpe Stakes is a Group One race run over 5 furlongs at York Racecourse on the third day of the four-day fixture, known as the ‘Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival’, staged annually in August. The Nunthorpe Stakes is open to colts, fillies and geldings aged two years and upwards and, as such, is not only one of the few races in which juveniles can compete against older horses, but the only Group One contest in Britain open to juvenile geldings.

Established, in its present guise, in 1922, the Nunthorpe Stakes takes it name from Nunthorpe, an outer suburb of Middlesbrough, on the edge of the North York Moors National Park, 50 miles or so north of York Racecourse. Since 2007, the Nunthorpe Stakes has been sponsored by the prestigious Coolmore Stud – headquarters of the largest thoroughbred breeding operation in the world – in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. In 2019, the Nunthorpe Stakes offered total prize money of £400,000.

Two horses – namely Tag End, in 1928, 1929 and 1930, and Sharpo, in 1980, 1981 and 1982 – have won the Nunthorpe Stakes three times. The leading trainer in the history of the race remains Australian-born Captain Oswald ‘Ossie’ Bell, who saddled five winners in the Twenties and Thirties. Flat racing legend Lester Piggott rode seven winners between 1958 and 1978 and is the leading jockey in the history of the Nunthorpe Stakes.

According to the ‘weight-for-age’ scale, which is designed to compensate younger horses for their lack of physical maturity, juveniles competing in the Nunthorpe Stakes carry just 8st 1lb. By contrast, three-year-olds carry 9st 9lb and four-year-olds and upwards carry 9st 11lb. However, despite a generous weight concession, of 22lb and 24lb, respectively, from the older horses, the last two-year-old to win the Nunthorpe Stakes was Kingsgate Native in 2007.

The 2019 renewal of the Nunthorpe Stakes proved pivotal, insofar as the winner, Battaash, trained by Charles Hills, recorded a time of 55.90 seconds and, in so doing, broke the five-furlong course record set by Dayjur 29 years earlier. Dayjur, trained by Dick Hern and owned, like Battaash, by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, was billed in his heyday as the ‘fastest horse in the world’; his winning time of 56.16 seconds was widely considered to be unbeatable.

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Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp

The Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp or, in English, ‘Prize of the Abbey of Longchamp’, is a Group One race run over a straight 1,000 metres, or 4 furlongs and 213 yards, at Longchamp Racecourse, in the Bois de Boulogne, west of Paris France. The race is open to colt, fillies and, since 2001, geldings aged two years and upwards. However, since 1972, just one juvenile – the Habitat filly Sigy, trained by Christiane ‘Criquette’ Head-Maarek and ridden by her brother, six-times French champion jockey Freddy Head – has won the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.

As the title suggests, the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp was named after a thirteenth century priory which, prior to the French Revolution, occupied an area on the northern boundary of the modern racecourse. The race was inaugurated in 1957, when it was added to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe fixture, staged on the first Sunday in October, to celebrate the centenary of Longchamp Racecourse. Following the introduction of the European Pattern race system in 1971, the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp was assigned Group Two status, but subsequently upgraded to Group One status in 1976.

Yves Saint-Martin, the darling of the French racing public in the Sixties and Seventies, is the leading jockey in the history of the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, with five winners between 1962 and 1975. François Mathet, perennial French champion trainer between 1957 and 1982, did better still, saddling a total of eight winners between 1957 and 1974.

The Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp is regularly contested by the crème de la crème of sprinting talent from the other side of the English Channel. Since the turn of the century, various British and Irish trainers, including David Nicholls, Clive Brittain, Roger Charlton (twice), Kevin Ryan (twice), Sir Mark Prescott and Charles Hills, among others, have tasted success in the Longchamp showpiece. Other illustrious ‘foreign’ winners down the years have included Sharpo, trained by Jeremy Tree, in 1982, Habibti, Timeform Horse of the Year, trained by John Dunlop, in 1983, Dayjur, European Champion Sprinter, trained by Dick Hern, in 1990 and Lochsong, Cartier Champion Sprinter twice, trained by Ian Balding, in 1993 and 1994.