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:
“But the creative person is subject to a different, higher law than mere national law. Whoever has to create a work, whoever has to bring about a discovery or deed which will further the cause of all of humanity, no longer has his home in his native land but rather in his work.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The nearest the modern general or admiral comes to a small-arms encounter of any sort is at a duck hunt in the company of corporation executives at the retreat of Continental Motors, Inc.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“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 don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s 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)