Turf Talk: Spotlight on region's most valuable and prestigious steeplechase

The race is named after a famous local trainer who had stables at Towton just outside Tadcaster.

The Halls were a real racing dynasty. Brother Sam trained some great jumpers from his yard in Middleham and his daughter Sally –Charlie’s niece – also became a top trainer.

The event was established in 1969 and originally called the Wetherby Pattern Chase. It became the Charlie Hall Memorial Wetherby Pattern Chase in 1978 and was given its current shorter title in 1990. The bookmaking firm Bet365 have sponsored the race since 2003.

This Grade Two steeplechase is run over three miles with 18 fences of the Wetherby course being jumped. Held in late October or early November, it is seen by most jumping enthusiasts as the start of the National Hunt season proper.

The winners of the race read like a who’s who of jump racing icons with three of them – Burroughill Lad, Forgive ‘n Forget and See More Business – also having tasted victory in the sport’s top race, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Indeed, See More Business rode to glory in both 1999 and 2000 and is one of only six horses to win it twice. No horse has won it three times.

For the record, Wayward Lad, Celtic Shot, Barton Bank, One Man and Ollie Magern are the other five dual-winners.

The most successful trainer in Charlie Hall Chase history is Nigel Twiston-Davies, who has supplied the winner on six occasions. As well as Ollie Magern in 2005 and 2007 he saddled Tipping Tim (1992), Young Hustler (1994), Bristol De Mai (2017) and Ballyoptic last year.

The latter would have been well-fancied for this year’s Grand National had it gone ahead such was his display of stamina when he won in 2019.

Carl Llewellyn was on board three of the Twiston-Davies victors, making him leading top jockey, sharing the honour with Graham Bradley and Mick Fitzgerald.

Southern stables have dominated the race in recent times with Definitly Red’s win for Brian Ellison in 2018 amazingly the only success for Yorkshire stables this century.

This is a far cry from the early days of the race when the Dickinson dynasty won three years out of four with Wayward Lad’s two triumphs in 1983 and 1985 being preceded by Righthand Man winning in 1982.

Those really were the glory days for Northern racing , with Forgive n’ Forget (1986) and Cybrandian (1987) also ending up in the winner’s enclosure.

My lasting memory of the race is seeing One Man win in both 1996 and 1997. He was a grey horse who really captured the public’s imagination.

He followed his victory in 1996 by winning the King George Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.

He then showed his versatility by dropping back to two miles and winning the Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 1998. What a horse!

And what a race the Charlie Hall Chase is. Hopefully we will continue to see top class horses targeting Yorkshire’s most valuable and prestigious steeplechase for many years to come.