National Hunt racing is the official name given to the sport of horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles. National Hunt racing in the UK is divided into two major distinct branches: Hurdles and Steeplechases. Alongside these there are "bumpers", which are National Hunt flat races. In a Hurdles race, the horses jump over obstacles called hurdles; in a Steeplechase the horses jump over a variety of obstacles that can include plain fences, water jump or an open ditch. The biggest events of the year in the UK are generally considered to be the Aintree Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Read more about National Hunt Racing: Outline, History, National Hunt Racing Today, Types of Race, Grades and Classes, Hunter Chase Racing, Point To Point Racing
Famous quotes containing the words national, hunt and/or racing:
“The cinema is going to form the mind of England. The national conscience, the national ideals and tests of conduct, will be those of the film.”
—George Bernard Shaw (18561950)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (18181883)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they dont get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goats cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)