John Ingles looks back to how racing was impacted by the notorious winter of 1962/63.
It's now a week since jumps racing last took place in Britain without at least one meeting being abandoned and with large parts of the country still under a blanket of snow and freezing temperatures, more fixtures have already fallen foul of the winter weather in the days ahead.
Temperatures do look set to rise early next week, though, so the current disruption will at least be fairly short lived. But over 60 years ago, the country was well into a notorious big freeze which lasted not just for weeks but months. There was no racing in Britain between Saturday December 22nd 1962 and Friday March 9th 1963, with the exception of a single meeting which Ayr managed to stage in early-January. January 1963 was the coldest month in the 20th century and more snow fell in February, resulting in drifts that brought the country to a halt.
The biggest race lost during this period was the eagerly-anticipated clash between the rising star in Britain’s steeplechasing ranks, Mill House, and the Whitbread Gold Cup winner Frenchman’s Cove in the King George VI Chase at Kempton, 1962 being the second year running that the race had fallen victim to the weather. Fortunately, the freeze finally relented just in time for the Cheltenham Festival to take place, though it required heroic work from the groundstaff to dig out the snow, which had to be taken away by lorry, before the thaw set in.
Mill House and Frenchman’s Cove therefore finally met in the Gold Cup, Mill House not having run for three months, whereas Frenchman’s Cove had been sent to Ireland, where conditions weren’t as severe, for a run in the Leopardstown Chase in February in which he finished unplaced. There was speculation that the Irish horses, or those like Frenchman’s Cove that had had a run in Ireland, would dominate at Cheltenham thanks to their fitness edge but there were only four Irish-trained winners over the three days, the most notable among them being Arkle who won the Broadway Chase on the opening day of the meeting by 20 lengths. Mill House, though, provided the highlight, beating Arkle’s stablemate Fortria by 12 lengths in the Gold Cup.
The last time that the King George had to be abandoned completely was in 1981, though snow and frost resulted in the 2010 renewal being delayed by almost three weeks to take place at Kempton’s January meeting. It was the coldest December for more than a century which played havoc with the jumps programme and wiped out jumping over the busy Christmas period. Kempton did their best to stage the King George as scheduled but the protective covers froze to the turf and frost got into the ground.
When it did take place, Kauto Star was sent off odds-on to win a record fifth King George but that would have to wait for another year as he ran well below form in third behind winner Long Run who had just turned six. The King George was postponed after the declaration stage and only those left in it at the 48-hour stage were allowed to run in the rearranged race which was bad luck for the previous season’s Gold Cup winner Imperial Commander who would have been fit again to take his chance after being ruled out of the race on its scheduled date due to injury.
Another future Cheltenham Gold Cup winner who won a major prize postponed from the 2010 Christmas period was Synchronised whose Welsh Grand National victory came nearly a fortnight later than scheduled after sub-zero daytime temperatures and four to five inches of snow on the track’s frost covers made staging the race in its usual slot impossible. The Welsh Grand National has been a frequent victim of the weather over the last decade or so, though it’s waterlogging rather than frost or snow which has resulted in it being postponed until January on four occasions since Synchronised was successful.
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