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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.

Point-to-point is a form of grassroots steeplechasing, for horses, owned, trained and ridden, in Britain at least, by amateurs, who are members of an affiliated hunt. The sport is regulated by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), but governed by the Point-to-Point Authority (PPA) and run at a local level by hunts or recognised clubs. Likewise, point-to-point meetings are staged on courses approved, but not licensed, by the BHA, of which there are nearly a hundred in Britain.

You can, of course, bet on point-to-point racing, but the nature of the sport dictates that opportunities for doing so are limited. Unlike steeplechases run under National Hunt Rules on licensed racecourses, the final declarations for which are available 48 hours in advance, the final declarations for point-to-point races are available just 45 minutes before the scheduled ‘off’ time of each race. Consequently, the runners and riders are not published in the ‘Racing Post’ or any other daily newspaper and betting on point-to-point racing is not available from off-course bookmakers, online or on the High Street.

Realistically, the only way to bet on point-to-point racing is to attend a meeting, in person, buy a racecard, take note the final declarations – posted on a numbers board and a announced by public address – and place a bet with a bookmaker. Again, betting opportunities and individual markets are limited, but the betting ring at point-to-point courses typically includes enough bookmakers to provide choice for punters and a strong, competitive market overall.

In short, the National Stud is a Thoroughbred horse breeding facility situated just outside Newmarket, Suffolk, between the Rowley Mile and the July Course, which collectively constitute Newmarket Racecourse. Aside from stud services, the National Stud, which covers 500 acres, provides education and training for anyone interested in the bloodstock and breeding industries.

The National Stud was founded in 1815, when William Hall Walker, later Lord Wavertree, donated his bloodstock to the British government, in exchange for the purchase of his 1,100-acre estate in Tully, Kildare, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Newmarket Racecourse has been owned by the Jockey Club since 1974, but in 2008, having shed its reponsibility for the governance and regulation of British horse racing, the historic organisation also acquired the National Stud.The Jockey Club is governed by a Royal Charter, such that returns from its commercial interests, including the National Stud, are reinvested in British horse racing. The National Stud had previousy been under the control of the

 Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB), but was transferred to the Jockey Club when lack of funds threatened its existence.

The National Stud is, in fact, the only working Throughbred stud in Britain to offer guided tours to the general public. Public tours, taken by coach and on foot, are available at weekends and on bank holidays between February and October, and private tours can be arranged at additional cost. Resident stallions include three-time Gold Cup winner Stradivarius, Lope Y Fernandez, Rajasinghe and former top-class sprinter Bradsell.

Transportation, in Britain, to Europe, or further afield can be a stressful experience for racehorses and, as such, is subject to a whole raft of rules and regulations. Some of them relate to transporting live animals, in general, and some of them relate specifically to transporting racehorses for commercial purposes.

For example, unless you are travelling directly for veterinary diagnosis or treatment, you should not transport a horse that is not fit, in terms of fatigue, illness or injury, for the intended journey. In any case, you should not transport a horse in anything other than a clean, spacious vehicle, which is fit for purpose and unlikely to cause injury or distress. Of course, you must keep a valid identification document, or equine passport, with a horse whenever it is transported.

Racehorses are most often transported to and from racecourses, in horse boxes or horse lorries, by trainers acting on behalf of the hours. Racehorse trainers may or may not employ grooms to drive such vehicles but, either way, further regulations apply to horses being transported as part of a business or, in other words, for economic activity.

Depending on the distance, duration and final destination of the journey, in addition to a goods vehicle operator’s licence, businesses may need to hold a transporter authorisation, issued by the Department for Environment,Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and complete an Animal Transport Certificate (ATC), issued by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). Other requirements include a certificate of vehicle approval and certificates of competence for drivers and attendants.