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| |  Saturday, 6 April, 2002, 21:39 GMT 22:39 UK The Grand challenge The Grand National - is it the ultimate? The Martell Grand National is commonly regarded as the world's most testing steeplechase. But is it? BBC Sport Online's Scott Heinrich compares the Aintree spectacular with the Czech Republic's Velk� Pardubick� and Japanese race, the Nakayama Grand Jump. MARTELL GRAND NATIONAL The first National held at Aintree, in 1839, was won by a horse called Lottery, and since then the race has proudly cultivated a reputation as something anybody can win. A stamina-sapping contest often run in testing ground, the Grand National demands maximum effort from the outset.
The first fence invariably witnesses some casualties, and bookmakers this year offer around 5-1 that no horse will fall at the first. The sixth fence, the infamous Becher's Brook, often exposes less-than-perfect jumpers for what they are. Four feet, ten inches high with a five-and-a-half-foot dropping brook, the fence allows no margin for error. Just two fences later comes the Canal Turn, a five-foot obstacle that cannot be taken at top speed due to the ninety-degree turn that immediately follows. The stretch adjacent to the Leeds and Liverpool canal includes a fence known as Valentine's Brook, but there's nothing remotely romantic about fence number 15, The Chair.
The only positive for runners and riders is that The Chair has to be negotiated just the once. A six-foot open ditch five feet, two inches high, it meets pensive protagonists a furlong from the winning post on the first lap but is removed for the gruelling slog to the winning line. Grand National icon, Red Rum, a triple winner of the race, holds the course record at nine minutes, two seconds - and even on that day in 1973 he barely walked over the line. And just two horses completed the course without mishap in 2001 with Blowing Wind falling and being remounted by his jockey to finish a we-ary third. VELKA PARDUBICKA The Velk� Pardubick� is nothing if not unique. Racing Post journalist Alastair Down has described it as his first three-cigarette race - and it's not hard to see why.
Zig-zagging through picturesque Pardubice with fences - and mounds - popping up in the most uncompromising of places, this cross-country event is tenseness personified. The tone of the race, like the National, is set early. The Velk� taxisuv pr�kop, a five-and-a-half-foot jump, is the fourth obstacle and provides an immediate test of skill. Clearing it is one thing, successfully negotiating the eight-foot descent and 16-foot, water-filled ditch that follows is another. Throw in a 22-foot-long, seven-foot-high grass mound (Irsk� lavice) and two pairs of jumps that are just 27 feet apart (Velk� zahr�dky), and one gets the impression the Velk� Pardubick� isn't far removed from an equestrian event run at high speed. To add to the intrigue, all horses must pass a trial jump before going to post. Any horse falling at the trial jump or twice refusing are not allowed to compete. NAKAYAMA GRAND JUMP Although the Nakayama Grand Jump's inaugural running took place in 2000, the history of the race can be traced back to 1934. Known then as the Nakayama Daishogai, it featured obstacles that, if still in place today, would put counterpart steeplechases to shame as a test of equine fortitude.
Gone are the five-foot brick walls that confronted runners then, but the Grand Jump still rates as a steeplechase that takes some winning. The Water Jump, just three feet high but all of 12 feet in length, offers the trickiest challenge, while the five-foot-high Grand Hedge also provides an ample test. Shorter and with fewer fences than both the National and Pardubick�, the Grand Jump places emphasis on speed rather than stamina. Race conditions are different, too, with a maximum field of just 16 and international participation by invitation-only lending an air of elitism. With a staggering purse in keeping with the vast riches on offer in Japanese Flat racing, the Grand Jump is a race coveted by jumps trainers the world over. | |
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