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During the truly cold British winter of 1984/85, which was characterised by heavy snowfall nationwide and an average temperature of just 2.7°C, or 37°F, horse racing suffered a spate of abandonments, which, in turn, provided the catalyst for the introduction of all-weather racing. However, it was not until December, 1988, that the Jockey Club – which, at the time, still regulated the sport of horse racing in Britain – granted permission for Lingfield Park in Surrey, South East England, to construct a synthetic Equitrack course inside its existing turf course.

In those early, pioneering days, the racing surface of choice was Equitrack, which consisted of a mixture of graded grains of silica sand and oil-based polymer, laid to a total depth of six inches or so. Equitrack had risen to prominence following the installation of the acclaimed Al Bahathri gallop, under the auspices of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, in Newmarket in 1985. As it turned out, the surface had its problems, not least with inconsistency, which led to its eventual replacement with the superior, more reliable Polytrack surface in 2001.

Nevertheless, following a multi-million pound investment by the then-owners of Lingfield Park, Leisure Investments, which included an interest-free loan of £1.5 million from the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB), the Equitrack course was laid, trialled and approved for racing. The inaugural all-weather fixture in Britain, sponsored by William Hill, was staged on October 30, 1989. All 12 races on the card were well subscribed, with at least 11 runners in each, but the opening contest, the William Hill Claiming Stakes (Div. I), over a mile, went the way of the 7/2 favourite, Niklas Angel, trained by Conrad Allen and ridden by Richard Quinn.

As far as National Hunt ratings are concerned, the Timeform era did not begin until the early sixties. By contrast, the King George VI Chase was inaugurated in 1937, so the earlier winners, notably Cottage Rake (1948), who also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1948, 1949 and 1950, were never awarded a Timeform rating. Also missing from the Timeform top ten is Wayward Lad who, in 1985, created history by becoming the first horse to win the King George Chase three times, but only ever achieved a Timeform Annual Rating of 175; he falls into the ‘top class’ category, according to the respected ratings organisation, but is still 9lb shy of the 184 required to feature in the ‘all-time’ top ten.

Fittingly, for a race that, in terms of prestige, is second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the staying chasing division, five of the top ten steeplechasers in the history of Timeform won the King George VI Chase. It is no coincidence that all five also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup at least once.

In chronlogical order, Mill House (191), trained by Fulke Walwyn, won the King George VI Chase in 1963, but was overshadowed for most of his career by the highest-rated steeplechaser in the history of Timeform, Arkle (212), who won the race in 1965 and may well have done so again in 1966, but for fracturing a pedal bone in-running. Burrough Hill Lad (184) won in 1984, Desert Orchid (187) won four out of five renewals between 1986 and 1990 and Kauto Star (191) won five out of six between 2006 and 2011; Long Run (184) interrupted that winning sequence in 2010 and won again in 2012.

The Welsh Grand National is run over three miles and six-and-a-half furlongs, and twenty-three regulation park fences, at Chepstow on the day after Boxing Day. The distance of the race is half a mile shorter than that of the Grand National, which, despite being shortened in recent years, still stands at four miles and two-and-a-half furlongs. The fences, too, are fewer in number, and lesser in difficulty, than the 30 distinctive, spruce-topped obstacles that must be completed in the Grand National.

Nevertheless, underfoot conditions at Chepstow in midwinter are invariably very testing – and, occasionally, unraceable, forcing the postponement of the Welsh Grand National to the following – January – such that the most valuable race run in Wales is, fittingly, a true test of endurance and jumping ability. As such, the Welsh Grand National is considered a trial for the two most prestigious steeplechases of the season, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March and the Grand National, at Aintree, the following month.

Horses to have won both the Welsh Grand National and the Grand National include Rag Trade, who, in 1976, won the former (in the days when it was still run in February) en route to denying Red Red a historic Aintree hat-trick, Corbiere (1982, 1983), Earth Summit (1997, 1998) and Bindaree, who actually won at Aintree in 2002 before winning at Chepstow in 2003. The last horse to win both races, though, was Silver Birch, who won the Welsh Grand National for Paul Nicholls in 2004 and the Grand National for Gordon Elliott in 2007.

The short answer is no, it hasn’t. Nowadays run over three miles and six-and-a-half furlongs at Chepstow Racecourse on the day after Boxing Day, the Welsh Grand National has been the festive highlight at the Monmouthshire course since 1979. However, the race itself is much older, and has been staged at two other, long-defunct venues since its inauguration in 1895.

Indeed, even after being transferred to Chepstow in 1949, the Welsh Grand National was run on Easter Tuesday until 1969, and subsequently in February, before finding its current position in the calendar. December is the wettest month of the year in Monmouthshire, with a little over 5″ of rain, on average; five times since 2010 the Welsh Grand National has been postponed to the following January because of waterlogging.

The Welsh Grand National was established at Ely Racecourse, which is now Trelai Park, in the district of the same name in western Cardiff in 1895. There it remained until the closure of that course on April 27, 1939, four months before the outbreak of World War II, and after a nine-year hiatus was resurrected, briefly, at Newport Racecourse in 1948. Newport Racecourse, a.k.a. Caerleon Racecourse (it was actually situated in Caerleon, five miles or so from Newport city centre), staged the Welsh Grand National just once, on March 30, 1948, before it, too, closed later that year. The inaugural running at Chepstow, the following year, was won by Fighting Line, trained by Ken Cundell and ridden by none other than jockey-turned-author Dick Francis, later of Devon Loch fame.