al following in Britain and a potent breeding
industry in France, the sport of steeplechas-
ing barely exists in the rest of the world.
And yes, even within those limits it is the
Grand National that retains a unique hold
on British popular culture. Moreover this
meeting has only been going since 1911,
and did not really begin to gain stature until
after the war – in contrast with those iconic
Flat fixtures that can trace their ancestry to
Hanoverian times, or the Restoration, even
to Tudor England. Yet the importance of
the Cheltenham Festival to the jump racing
community has so transcended its parish
boundaries that these four heady days in
March have unmistakably come to supplant
much older, much broader traditions as a
celebration of winter's defeat.
Even on the Turf, the Lincoln meeting can
no longer be said to end the hibernation of
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