Loamfurlong is written for adult readers in the UK who like an editorial pause between fences. We treat the Cheltenham Festival in March as a season of its own and every regular Saturday card as worth a paragraph or two.
Long-form, slow-paced, programme-quality writing about the British classics and the season around them. Nothing live, nothing AI, no odds compilation.
The British classic. The blue-riband of jump racing.
The hurdling championship. Tests sustained 2-mile speed.
The stayers’ championship. The long hurdling test.
Founded 1934. One of Britain’s oldest bookmakers. Licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
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Irish-British bookmaker with strong UK National Hunt coverage. Licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
Visit yard →
Part of the Flutter group. Jump-racing coverage on Sky Sports Racing. Licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
Visit yard →The story of British jump racing begins in 1752 with a match across country between two Irish gentlemen, Mr O’Callaghan and Mr Edmund Blake, from Buttevant Church to St Leger Church — the first recorded steeplechase, run from steeple to steeple. By 1830 the steeplechase had moved to enclosed courses, and on 26 February 1839 the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase — soon renamed the Grand National — was formally run for the first time at Aintree, won by Lottery, ridden by Jem Mason.
The Cheltenham Festival, which had begun as a single day, expanded to two days in 1923, three days in 1993 and four days in 2005. In its modern form it is the working capital of British jump racing — four days every March across which Best Mate, Kauto Star, Denman and Tiger Roll became household names. Best Mate won three consecutive Gold Cups (2002—2004); Tiger Roll won two consecutive Grand Nationals (2018—2019). Both are referenced in living memory by anyone standing at the rails.
fences — the Cheltenham Gold Cup features 22 fences over 3m 2.5f. The blue-riband test of jump racing, run on Festival Day 4 every March.
fences — the Aintree Grand National features 30 fences over 4m 2.5f. The most famous handicap chase in the world.
first formal Grand National — won by Lottery, ridden by Jem Mason. The longest-running British jump-racing institution.
The top of the National Hunt grading pyramid. Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Stayers’ Hurdle, Queen Mother — the championship races.
One step below the championships. Trial races, the Plate, the Prince of Wales’s Chase — horses building towards Grade-1 form.
Pattern races below Grade level. Honest middle-class jumping, often a stepping-stone for novices and progressive handicappers.
Lower-end handicaps and novices. Where many jumping careers begin and where most everyday Saturday cards are settled.
I’ve stood at the rails on Gold Cup Day since the eighties. Loamfurlong writes about a card the way you’d talk about it on the way home — slow, plain, what mattered.
▷The thing I like is the long-form previews of Festival week and Aintree. Most jump-racing coverage is two paragraphs and a tip. This is twelve paragraphs and a thought.
▷I have been going to Cheltenham since the early 1980s. The responsibility page is the page I will send to my brother, who has not been to a meeting but enjoys the racing on the television.
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