What do Catterick, Doncaster and Wetherby have that Beverley, Pontefract, Redcar, Thirsk, York and Ripon do not have?
The answer is Jump racing or National Hunt meetings at these race courses. Wetherby only hosts jump racing but Catterick and Doncaster have both flat and jump meetings.
The Jump Racing programmes run on turf between Autumn and Spring
Hurdles are timber obstacles of a minimum 3’6″ in height and races are divided into categories, determined by age, experience.
Steeple Chases may have a variety of obstacles to jump including
• Plain fence: which are a minimum of 4’6″ in height
• Water Jump: where horses clear a fence of at least 3′ in height and land in water 3″ deep
• Open Ditch: 4’6″ in height on the take off side with a ditch on the take off side
A Point to Point is a form of amateur horseracing over fences for hunting horses and is a way of horses getting used to a life of racing.
Flat racing denotes a form of horse racing which is run over a level track for a predetermined distance during the summer months.
A bumper is a Flat race run under the rules of Jump racing. It is designed for horses who have not previously run on the Flat to get experience of racing
Picture source creative Commons ‘horse racing’ by micheleart, on Flickr