Steeplechase

Marathons are modern endurance ordeals named for an event in ancient Greek history. After the Battle of Marathon, a runner named Pheidippides took the news of the allied Greek victory over the invading Persians to Athens and Sparta. He ran about 150 miles in two days, and dropped dead. Cross-country running was a common low-paying job in those days, not a form of athletics, and The Runner of Marathon was famous in antiquity as a patriot who ran himself to death in service of his country. [fact check: Pheidippides was sent to Sparta to summon them to join Athens and Plataia and so was dead while the battle of Marathon was fought. After the battle the Athenians realised that they had only been fighting the Persian infantry, and that the Persian cavalry was aboard ships heading for Athens where traitors would oven the gates for them as they galloped up from the port. The whole 9,000 Athenian infantry ran the 26 miles from Marathon, forming up in front of the city as the Persians disembarked - the frustrated Persians went home. The Athenians did the run in sandals carrying armour and weapons, and they lived on a diet of bread - today's pampered marathon runners get it easy by comparison.]

Marathon running distance was established in 19th Century England, and has nothing to do with any distance in Greece, no matter what Marathon promoters may claim, and Marathons have absolutely no connection to ancient Greek sport. The Greeks, who invented the idea of Sport, reserved the endurance ordeal for livestock trials. Their longest foot race, called the aulion, was less than two miles.

A steeple chase, hurdle race or National Hunt Flat Race is a Pattern Race if, in any particular year

5.1.1 it appears in the list of pattern races in the steeple chase and hurdle race section of the

Programme Book published by the Authority, or

5.1.2 in the case of a race run in Ireland, it appears as a pattern race in the Irish Racing Calendar.

Such pattern races are divided into Grades 1, 2 and 3