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By Betsy Branscome
Times Community Newspapers
StaiT Writer
Centuries old, steeplechasing is a blending of sporting traditions., * * **1
Though thaJIrst flforded
“steep|ecttjgp’> ^ took place in Ym2 IrelanalSee sidebfUi^stpty, this page], tfyp .rBritish themselves seem to have imported the : sport of horse racing from the conquering Romans in the first century, A.D. Near Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain, ancient traces of a Roman race course still exist. The Saxons, who succeeded the Romans, continued the practice of training the horse for sport and military use. ,
The three-mile course at Bedford in England in 1810 marks the first time a racetrack was built purposefully for jump racing. There were eight fences, each 4 feet, 6 inches high. Because horses competing had to be qualified hunters and not regulation “racehorses,” this event is not widely considered the first organized steeplechase meeting.
That nod goes to the 1830 St. Albans Steeplechase, a course over four miles cross country whose exact course was kept secret until the starting time. In 1832, the Shamrock Challenge was
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