Category: Racing Festivals

The three-day Grand National Meeting is staged annually, in April, at Aintree Racecourse on Merseyside in North West England, although the exact date depends on when Easter falls each year. Following, as it does, hot on the heels of the Cheltenham Festival with, typically, three or four weeks between the two prestigious meetings, National Hunt enthusiasts have little time to recover before putting their emotions through the wringer once again.

 

The Thursday of the Grand National Meeting, a.k.a. Liverpool Day, has been described in some quarters as the ‘calm before the storm’ but, while the attendance is definitely lower than on the Friday or Saturday, a crowd of around 35,000 is not uncommon. Of course, the Grand National Meeting also kicks off with four Grade 1 races in a row, the Aintree Manifesto Novices’ Chase, the Betway Bowl and the Aintree Hurdle, so the adrenalin is pumping even before the first race of the week over the National fences, the Fox Hunters’ Chase, later in the afternoon.

 

The Friday, a.k.a. Ladies’ Day, too, features more Grade 1 action, in the form of the Mildmay Novices’ Chase, the Aintree Melling Chase and the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle, which are run on either side of the feature handicap, the Topham Chase. Inaugurated in 1949 and named after the late Mirabel Topham, former owner of Aintree Racecourse, the Topham Chase is run over 2 miles 5½ furlongs or, in other words, one circuit of the National course.

 

The Saturday, a.k.a. Grand National Day, is all about the most famous steeplechase in the world, the Grand National. Inaugurated in 1839 and, nowadays, officially run over a distance of 4 miles 2 furlongs and 74 yards – reduced by a furlong after re-measurement in 2016 – the Grand National remains one of the toughest tests ever devised for horse and rider. To win the most valuable steeplechase in Europe, horses must negotiate thirty spruce fences, including household names such as Becher’s Brook, the Canal Turn and the Chair, and the famously long, 494-yard run-in between the final fence and the winning post.

The first all-weather horse racing fixture in Britain took place, on the original 10-furlong, Equitrack course at Lingfield Park in Surrey, in 1989. However, All-Weather Championships Finals Day is a much more recent addition to the horse racing programme, having first been staged, on the newly resurfaced Polytrack course at Lingfield, on Good Friday, 2014. That was the first time that horse racing had been staged on Good Friday in Britain but, after some initial opposition to the idea, All-Weather Championships Finals Day quickly became established as part of the British racing calendar.

 

All-weather racing contributes more than a fifth of the British horse racing fixture and, in fact, the All-Weather Championships can be credited with regenerating the all-weather programme. The All-Weather Championships has, in effect, created a schedule – akin to the British Champions Series, sponsored by Qipco – that builds, through a qualifying period, to a Good Friday finale in each of six race categories.

 

In the case of the All-Weather Championships, the qualifying period is between late October and Good Friday and to qualify for any of the Championship Final races, a horse must run at least three times on a synthetic surface, at Chelmsford City, Kempton Park, Lingfield Park, Newcastle, Southwell or Wolverhampton and obtain a sufficiently high official rating, or win a specific “Fast Track Qualifier”. Four Fast Track Qualifers, including at Dundalk, Chantilly, Deauville and Cagnes-Sur-Mer, are scheduled for each Championship Final and victory in any of them qualifies the winner to free, guaranteed entry to a specific race on All-Weather Championships Finals Day.

 

The Three-Year-Old All-Weather Colts, Fillies & Geldings Championship Final is run over 6 furlongs and worth £150,00 in total prize money, making in the most valuable race of its kind in the country. Similar comments apply to the Sprint Championship Final, which is run over 6 furlongs and 1 yard and open to horses aged four years and upwards, the Mile Championship Final, the Marathon Championship Final, run over 1 mile 7 furlongs and 169 yards and open to horses aged four years and upwards and the Fillies’ & Mares’ Championship final, run over 7 furlongs and 1 yard and open to fillies and mares aged four years and upwards. The Middle Distance Championship Final, run over 1 mile 2 furlongs, is the most valuable all-weather race run anywhere in Britain.

As the name suggests, British Champions Day is a single-day race meeting, staged annually in October at Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire, and marks the culmination of the British Champion Series. Since its inception, in 2011, British Champions Day has become one of the most prestigious and valuable events in the British sporting calendar and, in 2018, the total prize money for the six-race card was a record £4.35 million.

The British Champion Series consists of 35 major races run during the British flat racing season – including the five ‘Classic’ races – and is sponsored, like British Champions Day, by QIPCO Holding, one of the leading private investment companies in Qatar. The first five races on British Champions Day represent the final, decisive round in each of the five categories in the British Champions Series, namely Sprint, Mile, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Fillies & Mares.

The Group 1 British Champions Sprint Stakes, run over 6 furlongs, was inaugurated, as the Diadem Stakes, in 1946, but was renamed in 2011 and is now the finale of the British Champion Series Sprint Category. The race was elevated to Group 1 status in 2015.

The finale of the British Champions Series Mile Category, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, was inaugurated in 1955 and achieved Group 1 status in 1987. The finale of the British Champions Series Middle Distance Category, the Champion Stakes, run over 1 mile 2 furlongs, has been a Group 1 contest since the European Pattern race system was introduced in 1971, but was inaugurated, at Newmarket, in 1877.

The Group 2 British Champions Long Distance Cup, run over 2 miles, was also inaugurated at Newmarket, in 1873, as the Jockey Club Cup. The race was relocated and renamed in 2011, and elevated to Group 2 status three years later.

The Group 1 British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, run over 1 mile 4 furlongs, was inaugurated in 1946, as the Princess Royal Stakes, but was transferred to Newmarket, as the Pride Stakes, in 2008. The race moved back to Ascot, under its current title, in 2011 and was elevated to Group 1 status in 2013.

Not to be confused with the now-defunct Balmoral Handicap formerly run over 5 furlongs at Royal Ascot, the final race on British Champions Day is a new version, run over a mile and worth £250,000 in total prize money. Now the most valuable one-mile handicap in Europe, the Balmoral Handicap was run for the first time, in its current guise, in 2014.

The November Meeting – formerly The Open, but renamed in 2017 to avoid confusion with The Open Championship, also often known, colloquially, as ‘The Open’ – is the first major meeting of the season at Cheltenham Racecourse in Gloucestershire

Nowadays, of course, National Hunt racing takes place all year ‘round, more or less, but the ‘core’ period remains between the November Handicap, which marks the end of one Flat racing season, and the Lincoln Handicap, which marks the start of the next. Consequently, the November Meeting is considered by many as the start of the National Hunt season ‘proper’, not just because of the high-quality racing on offer, but also because it begins a period of uninterrupted jumping action.

The November Meeting is staged over three days, billed as Countryside Day, the November Meeting Saturday and the November Meeting Sunday, with a feature race on each day. The highlight of the first day is the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Steeple Chase, run over 3 miles 6 furlongs and open to horses aged five years and upwards. During the race, horses must negotiate thirty-two idiosyncratic obstacles – including banks, ditches, hedges and rails – that comprise the Cross Country Course at Prestbury Park.

The feature race of day two, is the more orthodox, but no less exciting, BetVictor Gold Cup Steeplechase, a Grade 3 handicap event run over 2 miles 4 furlongs on the Old Course and open to horses aged four years and upwards. Inaugurated in 1960, as the Mackeson Gold Cup, the BetVictor Gold Cup Steeplechase invariably attracts a large, high-quality field; its recent roll of honour includes Imperial Commander, who went on to win the Ryanair Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival.

November Meeting Sunday is the only Sunday when racing takes place at Cheltenham Racecourse. The feature race is the Greatwood Hurdle, another Grade 3 handicap event, run over 2 miles and 110 yards on the Old Course and open to horses aged for years and upwards. Currently sponsored by Unibet, a brand name of gambling operator Kindred Group, the Greatwood Hurdle was elevated to Grade 3 status in 2004. Although a handicap, the Greatwood is run over the same course and distance as the Champion Hurdle and, consequently, is considered a key trial for that race. That said, the last horse to win both races was Rooster Booster in 2002/03.