A Pictorial Tour of Piercefield Park

The Fences



Chepstow plan Image



Second fence


Here is a view of the back fences taken from the second in the back.
This fence is the first Open Ditch








The Water Jump This is a view of the water jump,This fence is the fourth fence and even though this fence is at the far side of the course you can recognise it because of the high birch at the side of the fence. It means that the fence must be jumped long instead of high. there are a lot of opinions on the worth of Water Jumps I personally don't think they serve any real purpose in a race but all courses seem to have them.
This fence has now been converted into a plain fence although the hedges still remain.





Last in the back This is the last fence in the back and when the horses go over this fence on the final circuit it the most critical part of the race as the course goes downhill from here and it is a long way to the next fence which is not only on the run-in but is also the start of the uphill part of the course many Chepstow races are won here by a horse getting away from the field here as it is very difficult to peg back horses in the final run in. Peter Scudamore was the master at this in the past even if you allow for the fact that Martin Pipe's horses liked to front run, 'Scu' would kick on from here and it was then very rare for him to get beaten if he managed to steal half a dozen lengths from here.



Last Ditch







Here are two views of this fence ,
The Final Open ditch .



This is the fence which catches out more horses than any other, Because of the position of this fence in the later part of the race it often catches out the tired horses,

Last ditch


However if a horse jumps this fence well then it is a great boost from here and the chase is on !










Last Fence

The view from the last fence jump this one in front and you have a great chance of winning given that front running horses do well here and not that many horses get caught on the run in at Chepstow.







And Finaly...........................
Here is a view of an Open Ditch.

A Ditch Many people new to racing don't realise that an open ditch is a fence where the ditch is not behind the fence but in front of the fence as you can see here there is a board just before the ditch to give the horse a take off mark but horses do sometimes miss this and their legs do down the ditch this usually means a fall. The open ditch fence means that horses must take off correctly and also must jump Long as well as High.









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