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He loves soft ground and loves a trip,. Brian Hughes is a fair judge, he rode him in Bangor one day when the ground was goodish and he said 'don't run this horse on this kind of ground anymore. I want you to bring him back for all the nationals next year, he'll stay all day'. Rachel owns him with a few other people and it's great to get it. It's great to see the horses back well again, I had a quiet spell but they are back flying again. I love having a good chaser and I think he's a nice chaser. It was an ordinary race, he carried a lot of weight and was the best horse in it. I'm delighted to have the job done now. We'll have a look for something over Christmas. My own young lad has actually got his licence in England today and we're absolutely thrilled, he's only 16. He can ride in hunter chases and some of those chases in England. I'll probably get a phone call in about five minutes that he has a race picked out for him in England!. If he has, we're not going to stop it. He's a good fun horse and he jumps well. The only mistake he made there was at the last and I shut my eyes!' John Joseph Hanlon, trainer

The Raceday Stewards interviewed Miss N. Parker, rider of Weihnachts, concerning her use of the whip in the latter stages of this race. Evidence was heard from the rider concerned, who accepted she had breached the whip Regulation and apologised. Having viewed a recording of the race and considered the evidence the Raceday Stewards were satisfied that Miss. N. Parker, was in breach of R 10.3(g)(frequency) and having considered her record in this regard they suspended her for 3 racedays

At the request of the Raceday Stewards, Miss M. O'Sullivan, rider of Broken Ice, trained by Gavin Cromwell, reported to the Stewards' Secretaries that her mount was ridden towards the rear to get home on todays testing ground

Owing to the low trajectory of the sun, the Raceday Stewards granted permission for fence #5 to be omitted from this race.

An extended handicap steeplechase for five years old and upwards rated 0-116
Penalties - Winner of a steeplechase after calculation of the handicap shall carry 7lb extra for each steeplechase won.
Riders - Qualified Riders under I.N.H.S. RulesTop weight after the time of declaration shall notbe less than 12st 4lbs and the minimum weightis 10st 7lbsNoteThe Rules and instructions relating to theOvernight Nomination of Riders shall not applyin this instance. The top 8 horses declared inrace card order will be allocated riders from theselected British based and Irish based Ridersteam by lot.Trainers of any remaining horses in this raceshould declare a rider of their choice. The drawfor riders will take place at 10.30 a.m onWednesday 22nd November with the toss of acoin to determine which team draws odds oreven numbers. Individual riders will then bedrawn by ballot.Points will be scored by the first eight placedhorses on a scale of 15-12-10-8-7-6-5-4, if thehorse is eligible to score points, and the teamthat accumulates the highest number of pointswill be deemed the winner.In the event of there being less than 8 horsesdeclared or a non-runner the equivalent rider inthe opposing team eg. Nos. 1 & 2, Nos 3 & 4etc., will not be eligible to score points.The IHRB have suspended Rule 155 for thepurpose of this raceRiders in the challenge will wear the Registeredcolours with each country's tea