• How Many Jumps Are There In The Grand National Race
• How Many Jumps Are There In The Grand Nationals

The Chair is a fence on Aintree Racecourse's National Course and thus is one of 30 that are jumped during the Grand Nationalsteeplechase which is held annually at the racecourse near Liverpool, England.

30 Jumps – 16 Fences. The Grand National is renowned for being one of the most difficult horse races in the world. The gruelling four and a half mile course has 30 jumps of varying difficultly for the brave jockeys and horses to navigate. Around 60% of the horses that start the race will not make it past the finishing post, and for the first horse over the last fence a 494 yard marathon run-in awaits. The Chair is a fence on Aintree Racecourse 's National Course and thus is one of 30 that are jumped during the Grand National steeplechase which is held annually at the racecourse near Liverpool, England.

It is the 15th fence that the runners jump and is one of only two (the other being the 16th, the Water Jump) in the race to be negotiated only once.^[1]

Positioned in front of the grandstand, it is the tallest fence on the course, at 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m),^[2] preceded by a 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) open ditch on the takeoff side. The Chair is also comfortably the narrowest fence on the Grand National course, bar the Water Jump. The landing side of The Chair fence is actually 6 inches (15 cm) above the ground on the takeoff side, creating the reverse effect to that at the Becher's Brook fence, meaning the ground comes up to meet horse and rider sooner than anticipated.^[1]

Generally it is jumped fairly safely by most horses in the Grand National field, probably due to the lengthy run they have before reaching the fence, and because, by the time the fence is approached, most of the runners have settled into a smooth running rhythm. However, it regularly claims fallers, not just in the Grand National but other races held over the course. Perhaps The Chair's most notorious pile up occurred during the 1979 Grand National,^[3] won by Rubstic. Two loose horses veered across the main body of the field and contributed to the falls or refusals of nine horses, including Kintai who had to be euthanised as a result of injuries sustained when he was brought down.^[4] For the following year's race, in which Ben Nevis returned and won having been one of the victims in the prior year's pile-up, channels were installed around the fence so that loose horses reluctant to negotiate the obstacle were able to bypass it rather than jump over it. There has been no equine fatality in the Grand National at The Chair since 1979, and only three at the fence since the race was founded in 1839.

The Chair has also claimed the life of the only human fatality in a Grand National when Joseph Wynne, the son of former winning jockey Denny Wynne, was badly injured in a fall at the fence during the 1862 running. Although taken alive from the course to the nearby Sefton Arms pub, he died hours later, never having regained consciousness.^[5] Former winning jockey George Ede, who rode under the name Mr. Edwards, also lost his life in a fall at the fence in 1872, albeit not in a Grand National.^[6] In the 1964 Grand National, rider Paddy Farrell fractured his spine in a fall at The Chair. His plight highlighted the lack of support for jockeys who are badly injured in racing, leading to the creation of the injured jockeys' fund.^[7]

The fence has caught out numerous Grand National winners over the years, including Russian Hero (1951), Ayala (1964), Rubstic (1980)^[3] and Silver Birch (2006).

The Chair receives its name from the chair once sited alongside the fence, at which a distance judge would sit when races used to be run in heats. Horses that tailed off too far were disqualified from later heats.^[8] In the 19th century the fence was more widely known as The Monument, but this term began to fall out of favour during the 1890s, although it was still occasionally used in the press up to and during the 1920s.

Number of fallers[edit]

This table documents the number of runners which fell in recent Grand Nationals at The Chair, including those who unseated riders or were brought down, but not those who were pulled up, carried out or refused at the fence:

*Race void

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abPitman, Richard (25 March 2004). 'Richard Pitman's Aintree course guide'. BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
2. ^'Aintree Grand National Fences'. Aintree Grand National. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
3. ^ ^abBaker, Andrew (5 April 2008). 'Grand National guide to the fences at Aintree'. Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
4. ^http://www.grand-national.me.uk/rubstic.php
5. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 9 June 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. ^http://bet-grand-national.com/george-ede-edwards/
7. ^Yates, Dave (27 November 1999). 'Obituary: Paddy Farrell'. The Independent. London.
8. ^Vamplew, Ray; Kay, Joyce (2005). Encyclopedia of British horseracing. Routledge. pp. 99–100. ISBN978-0-7146-5356-3. Retrieved 23 November 2010.

The 2020 edition of the Grand National has made history….for all the wrong reasons.

It is the first year that the iconic showpiece has been cancelled prior to the starter’s orders since the Second World War.

There have been a couple of aberrations – more on those shortly – but all told the 2020 edition of the Grand National will be the first time that the race hasn’t been contested at all since 1945.

It’s an absolute tragedy, so let’s hope that it’s another 75 years before the next cancellation!

Here’s a rundown of all the Grand National cancellations from 1839 – the first official running of the race – to the present day.

Grand National Cancellations and Postponements

World War I (1916-1918)

Funnily enough, for this three-year stint people had more important things going on in their lives than a horse race.

The First World War era as the first time in nearly 80 years that the Grand National had to be cancelled, with Aintree doubling up as a base for the War Office during the conflict with Germany.

Amazingly, such is the gung-ho spirit of the racing community, an alternative to the Grand National was staged.

At the now defunct Gatwick Racecourse, those not directly involved in the war efforts hastily arranged the War National Steeplechase, and while the results are not officially recognised in the Grand National pantheon these were still races that involved the best staying horses of the era.

World War II (1941-1945)

One again old hostilities with Germany raised their head during the 1940s, and once again Aintree Racecourse was commandeered as a base for British troops throughout the Second World War.

This time there would be no replacement – be it directly or in spirit – as all efforts were put into defending home soil from the Germans.

The Race That Never Was (1993)

From the Second World War until 1993 – an incredible 48-year stretch – the Grand National was run without any complications.

And, in truth, there was nothing stopping the action from unfolding in 1993 either….apart from the antics of those trying to oversee the race, that is.

In unprecedented scenes rarely seen at any meeting in the UK – let alone one of the biggest races in the world, the Grand National had to be voided after a false start and a series of bizarre coincidences meant that the action could not be restarted.

When the starter’s tape as raised, one jockey unfortunately became entangled in it, which caused carnage between his horse and those around him on the starting line.

That forced a false start to be declared, but 30 of the 39 horses carried on running as their jockeys were unaware of the kerfuffle unfolding behind them.

Aintree officials tried desperately to intervene, running onto the track and waving red flags, but none of the jockeys took the intervention seriously – preparations for the race had been halted earlier by a group of protestors, and most in the field believed the officials were also pranksters.

In the end, the vast majority of the field ran a good couple of miles before stopping while seven went on to complete the course – completely oblivious to the fact that the race had been abandoned.

Legendary commentator Peter O’Sullevan labelled it the ‘greatest disaster in the history of the Grand National’, and it’s hard to disagree with him.

The Race That *Almost* Never Was (1997)

Another entry to the pantheon of Grand National cancellations was narrowly avoided in 1997.

The 1990s were plagued by bomb threats at sporting events from a group claiming to be connected to the IRA, and the Grand National of ’97 was the latest to become embroiled in the group’s shenanigans.

Two coded bomb threats were sent to Aintree officials, and they had no choice but to evacuate the track of the 60,000 punters in attendance, jockeys, trainers, owners, stable staff, media employees and local residents.

Police and security services placed a lockdown on the course and carried out a series of controlled explosions, meaning that an estimated 20,000 people had to make do without theirs cars, house keys and other personal effects for the weekend – many generous Merseysiders put up stranded racegoers for the night.

Eventually, Aintree passed a safety inspection, and the 1997 Grand National was allowed to take place on the Monday, with 20,000 free tickets given away by race officials.

How Many Jumps Are There In The Grand National Race

In the end, one of the most controversial editions of the race of all time was won by the 14/1 shot Lord Gyllene.

The Coronavirus Outbreak (2020)

How Many Jumps Are There In The Grand Nationals

It was a global pandemic unlike anything the vast majority of us had ever witnessed away from cinema screens.

The coronavirus pandemic changed everybody’s lives, and it became pretty obvious rather quickly as it spread rapidly from February onwards that all major sport – including the Grand National – would have to be cancelled in order to fight the spread.

Plans had been made to run the race behind closed doors, but such notions were scuppered when the government advised a ban on all non-necessary travel and interaction.

Hopes to hold the 2020 Grand National later in the year were also scrapped, meaning that the coronavirus was responsible for only the ninth cancellation in 200 years of the National prior to raceday.