Hundreds attend horse race at centuries-old estate

Hundreds of people turned out for an amateur horse race at the childhood home of King Henry V.

Competitors rode over nearly five miles (8km) in The Courtfield Cup at the Courtfield Estate, in Goodrich in the Wye Valley in Herefordshire.

Thirty riders tackled hedges, gates, walls and ditches on Saturday afternoon, with Maurice Linehan claiming the £1,500 prize.

He said his horse won well at a "brilliant setting", but "there were a lot of fallers".

"We're going probably too quick early, but we had no choice because the horses were fresh and jumped well," Linehan stated.

"It was tricky some of the jumps, but it was you either jumped them or you were on the floor really."

Following the race attended by about 300 people, the winner also said "it was a bit of everything.

"The course had banks, had drains... stuff you think you wouldn't jump, but they did. It was a good mixture of a course, but it is very, very tough."

Associated with the Vaughan family since 1563, the estate was the childhood home of Henry V, who lived there from 1387 to 1394, according to local historians.

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