With the Cheltenham Festival upon us it is inevitable that the starts of Jumps races will be a point of discussion.

On average around three in every 100 Jumps races see a false start…however, at last year’s Festival there were 10 in the 28 races, which is clearly far too many and something we all want to avoid.

Steps have been taken to liaise with the jockeys and racecourse regarding what might have caused this, and some of the starting locations which have been identified as problematic have been adjusted.

However, the principles around Jump starts will still be maintained at the Festival this week. This is all about maintaining trust between starter and jockeys, and ensuring that no one is unfairly advantaged by the start of the race.

This short film sees BHA starters Robbie Supple, Sophia Upton and Will Jordan – all former jockeys – explain how the starting procedures work, and answer questions such as “why don’t you just let them go?” “why do you use standing starts?” and “why do you sometimes let them go from so far back?”

Read more: Jumps starts: how do they work and what rules govern them?