AUTHOR’S NOTE
213 Words
AUTHOR’S NOTESteeplechasing was originally an impromptu horse race with some visible Church steeples as a goal.
It was a horse race across open country, but now it is run on a course with artificial fences.
Steeplechase and hurdle racing trace their origins to the chase and the Field of War where the necessity to clear formidable obstacles was the object of the exercise.
The earliest horse race recorded in England was one held about A.D. 210 at Wetherby, North Yorkshire, among Arabians brought to Britain by Lucius Septimius Severus A.D. 146 - 211 the Emperor of Rome.
In the Georgian days the bucks and beaux used to have midnight steeplechases, which were extremely dangerous because they had often drunk far too much and gave themselves ridiculous handicaps such as riding blindfold or with one arm tied to their sides.
The Grand National Steeplechase which had begun in 1837 as the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase became the most famous and prestigious steeplechase throughout the world.
The course, an irregular triangle, must be covered twice for a distance of four miles, eight hundred and fifty-six yards and a total of thirty jumps, among which the most spectacularly hazardous are those known as Becher’s Brook and Valentine’s Brook.
The Jockey Club, which controls all the horse racing in England, was formed in 1750.
- Writer
