The jumps season or the flat season? It’s an age old question in the game we call Horse Racing and the community is often torn between the two. Both provide excellent entertainment but whether you prefer the warm summer during the flat season or the early day jumps during the start of the year, it’s tough to not enjoy both of them. We’ll be taking a look at both of the different areas of the sport and comparing the two.
Jumps racing
Also known as National Hunt racing, the jumps takes place from October to April. It coincides with the colder months and has that trademark frosty ambiance with racegoers wrapped up in coats and scarves.
The Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National are among the most famous jumps racing events in the UK. The races at these festivals are watched by thousands around the nation and even catch the attention of viewers from around the world. They’re easily the two biggest races in the UK for the jumps races but there’s so much action going on during the season with the likes of the King George near Christmas time.
For many they prefer jumps racing as jumps racing often features larger horses bred for endurance meaning the actual race goes on a lot longer than a 7 furlong flat race, there’s beauty in the both of them but there’s something about watching one horse stay on from the get go to outlast its opponents which fascinates many, not to mention if you’ve picked the winner and it dismantles the field, it’s a damn good feeling when you win one of your Horse racing tips.
Flat racing
Onto the jumps and we have to talk about the weather again. With the flat season taking place from April to October you’re fully aligned with the milder and sunnier British weather, whilst they may be temperamental at best in the UK, when it’s hot the nation is absolutely buzzing. You get that festival-esque atmosphere when at the races and when the sun is beaming down on you, you know it’s going to be a good day.
Flat racing is traditionally a bit shorter when it comes to the length of the race as a lot of the flat racing relies on speed. You’ll often see five and six furlong races which can run for just over a minute, if you were to compare that to the jumps racing, some of those can go for over four minutes with the Grand National record time being 8 minutes and 47 seconds. Some punters love the short races, whether that leaves more time to soak in the atmosphere at the races or you simply love the speed of some horses as opposed to the jumps showing their stamina.
We may have just been talking about how they’re traditionally shorter but don’t let that fool you into thinking all races are like this. Flat racing has many different styles of racing from quick sprints to some long endurance races, they’ll often also mix those into the same card at the racing so if you’re out for a day at the flat racing, you should be getting your fix for both styles.
For flat racing you have races such as the Epsom Derby, the Guineas, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Kentucky Derby. All races with huge prestige and big prize pools are all around the world. Flat racing seems to be more common in different parts of the world whereas the jumps season really seems to thrive in Europe.