Who was the first jockey to win the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow?

The Welsh Grand National was founded in 1895 at Ely Racecourse in western Cardiff – which, in its time, was the most important racecourse in Wales – where it remained until horse racing at Ely came to an end in 1939. The race wasn’t run again until 1948, at Caerleon Racecourse, on the northern outskirts of Newport, but that course also closed later the same year.

The Welsh Grand National was transferred to Chepstow Racecourse in 1949 and has remained at the Monmouthshire venue ever since. The inaugural running at Chepstow was won by Fighting Line, trained by Ken Cundell, father of Peter, and ridden by none other than Richard Stanley ‘Dick’ Francis. Of course, Francis would go on to ride 350 winners and win the National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship in 1953/54 but, having only turned professional the previous April, the Welsh Grand National was his most important win to date.

Francis would have won the Grand National proper, too, but for the inexplicable collapse of his mount, Devon Loch, on the run-in in the closing stages of the 1956 renewal. The shadow of the water jump, the noise of the crowd, false ground and cramp have all been blamed for the puzzling incident, but ESB, the principal beneficiary, was arguably the luckiest National winner in history.

 

What is a penalty?

In horse racing, the term ‘penalty’ refers to additional weight carried by a horse as a result of winning one or more races in a specified period. In a handicap race, horses are allotted weight according to their official handicap ratings, as determined by a team of handicappers at the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). However, if a horse is entered for one handicap race and wins another after the weights for that race have been published, it will incur a penalty of, say, 5lb or 7lb, which is added to the weight originally allotted.

The ethos of handicap races is that all participants have an equal chance of winning, so a horse that wins a handicap must, by definition, have improved on its official handicap rating. Penalties account for the fact that a winning horse may be turned out again quickly, before the official handicappers have had chance to revise its rating.

Similarly, if a horse has won a so-called ‘Pattern’ race – that is, a Group One, Group Two or Group Three race – on the Flat, it will incur a penalty, according to the race conditions, if it contests a lower-level Pattern race, or a ‘Listed’ race, within a certain period of time. Again, this reflects the fact that the horse in question has already proved itself at a higher level.

Which racecourse is situated in Scone Palace Park?

Scone Palace is a stately home situated to the east of the village of Old Scone – historically the capital of the Kingdom of Scotland – and to the north-east of Perth, overlooking the River Tay. The modern palace was completed, in Gothic Revival style, in 1807 and is surrounded by an extensive expanse of parkland, which dates from the Victoria era.

Scone Palace Park is home to Perth Racecourse, which has the distinction of being the northernmost racecourse, of any description, in Britain. Perth Racecourse, which exclusively stages National Hunt racing, consists of a right-handed, flat circuit, 1 mile 2 furlongs in extent, with a long run-in on the steeplechase course.

The first two-day meeting at Perth Racecourse took place on September 23 and 24, 1908. Nowadays, the highlight of the racing year at Perth Racecourse is the season-opening Perth Festival, which is staged over three days in late April each year. Outside the Perth Festival. is the Sam Morshead Perth Gold Cup, a handicap chase run over 2 miles 7 furlongs and 180 yards and worth £25,000 in guaranteed prize money. The race is named in honour of a former clerk of the course, who died of cancer in 2018.

What does SP stand for?

What does SP stand for? SP stands for ‘Starting Price’ and refers to the odds offered on winning, or placed, horses in the event that a punter does not take fixed odds – in the form of an ‘early’ or ‘board’ price – at the time of placing the bet. Historically, the integrity of the starting price system has been overseen by the independent Starting Price Regulatory Commission (SPRC), which employs a team of Starting Price Validators to collate betting information from on-course bookmakers. Starting price is determined by sampling bookmakers offering standard each-way terms and is defined as the market price generally available to ‘good’ money – that is, to lose at least £500 – at the ‘off’.

However, when horse racing went behind closed doors, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, starting prices could not be returned in the traditional way. A system of ‘industry’ starting prices, using betting information from major off-course bookmakers, was adopted instead. This move was controversial, insofar that it was believed, by some, to increase bookmakers’ margins at the expense of punters. However, following further examination by the SPRC, the new system was found to decrease, rather than increase, the factored-in profit margin, or ‘overround’, per race, such that it will be retained in future.

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