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Horse racing UK
Horse Racing Master > Horse racing > Horse racing UK UK horse racing is a very important contributor to the UK economy. This might come as a surprise for you, but it’s the truth. This is also the main reason why the sport is still a professional one. There are three forms of horse racing present in the UK. The first of them is over fences or hurdles, also called “National Hunt racing”. The most crowded period for this type of horse racing is surprisingly during the winter, but this has a logical explanation: the ground is softer during this season, and this is much more appropriate for jumping. Jump racing is only popular and seriously practiced in Britain, Ireland and France. The second form of horse racing, and maybe the most important, is flat racing. Now, as was said before, jump racing takes place in winter, for the above stated reason. There’s also a more subtle reason for it, and this is that winter is the period when flat racing doesn’t compete with it. Flat racing takes place over a pre-determined track over a certain distance. It has no obstacles, thus being a test of stamina and speed. It also puts the jockey’s mastery to the test, because he is the one who must decide when to make the horse run faster or when to make it run slower for energy conservation purposes. UK flat racing is held over different distances, starting from five furlongs (which is 1006 meters) and going up to over two miles (3219 meters). They are subsequently called sprints, middle distance or stayers races. The surface on which the race takes place is either grass or a synthetic surface. The third and final form of horse racing is called point to point racing. It is actually an amateurish form of the sport, it is over fences and it is for hunting horses. In Ireland for instance, many of the National Hunt horses will first compete in point to point racing, and it is almost like a nursery for young horses which will later become famous stars. In England and Wales this doesn’t apply, actually it is quite the opposite: a horse will run on point to point racing only after finishing its National Hunt career. In the UK, the number of professional jockeys is somewhere between four and five hundreds. Some of the most legendary jockeys have come from here, including Sir Gordon Richards, who is considered the greatest jockey ever in UK horse racing and even everywhere else in the world.
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