Choice of Sandown for rescheduled Fighting Fifth is a real slap in the face for northern jump racing

I was asked by a trainer on Friday afternoon whether I had heard the rumours Sandown was already lined up to take the Fighting Fifth Hurdle should it be cancelled due to the weather.

This was not something that I had heard, I replied, offering reassurance the course would pass the Friday afternoon inspection anyway. “If it does move to Sandown it’s another blow for northern jump racing,” the trainer said. “They just take everything away.”

The trainer spoke with an odd mixture of defiance and resignation – how dare racecourses and the BHA move one of the prime assets of northern jump racing to the south of Britain, but then this is just what happens so what can be realistically expected?