Cheltenham Festival

Traditionally the ‘getting-out stakes’ of the entire Cheltenham Festival, the County Handicap Hurdle became the second race on the final day, Gold Cup Day, in 2009, but remains one of the notoriously difficult handicap races staged during the week, of which there currently a dozen. In the last 10 runnings, three favoruites, all trained by Willie Mullins, have won, but they have been supplemented by three winners at 33/1, two winners at 20/1 and two at 12/1 in that same period.

Not altogether surprisingly, Mullins is the leading trainer in the history of the County Handicap Hurdle, having saddled Thousand Stars (2010), Final Approach (2011), Wicklow Brave (2015), Arctic Fire (2017), Saint Roi (2020), State Man (2022), Absurde (2024) and Kargese (2025) for a total of eight wins altogether. Mullins’ current stable jockey, Paul Townend, who rode the last five of that octet to victory, is likewise leading jockey.

The County Handicap Hurdle is run over two miles and a furlong on the New Course at Cheltenham and is now what the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) terms a ‘Premier Handicap’, having been reclassified, along with all previous ‘Grade 3’ races, since 2023. Worth £98,370 in total prize money and with a safety limit of 26, the race is inevitably fiercely competitive.

The most notable winner in recent years was State Man, who justified favouritism in 2022 and has since won 12 times at Grade 1 level, including the Champion Hurdle at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival. The Doctor Dino gelding would almost certainly have won the Champion Hurdle again in 2025, but for falling at the final flight of hurdles when five lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer.

Described by the ‘Racing Post’ as “the novices’ equivalent of the Cheltenham Gold Cup”, the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase is run over an extended three miles on the Old Course at Cheltenham, where it is currently scheduled as the second race on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival in March. Officially registered as the Broadway Novices’ Chase, but sponsored, since 2021, by investment firm Brown Advisory and breeding and racing operation Merriebelle Stable, the race is a Grade 1 contest, open to novice steeplechasers aged five years and upwards and currently worth £200,000 in total prize money.

The indomitable Willie Mullins – far and away the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival – is also the leading trainer in the history of the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase with seven winners, namely, Florida Pearl (1998), Rule Supreme (2004), Cooldine (2009), Don Poli (2015), Monkfish (2021), Fact To File (2024) and Lecky Watson (2025). The late Pat Taaffe, who numbered Coneyburrow (1953), Solfen (1960), Grallagh Cnoc (1961), Arkle (1963), and Proud Tarquin (1970) among his 25 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, remains the leading jockey in the history of the race.

The aforementioned Arkle, of course, went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, itself, in 1963, 1964 and 1965. More recently, Denman (2007), Bobs Worth (2012) and Lord Windermere (2013) all followed up in the ‘Blue Riband’ event the season after winning what is now the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase. From a statistics perspective, punters may be interested to know that, at the time of writing, eight of the last winners were seven-year-olds and five of them were sent off favourite.

Run over an advertised distance of three miles on the New Course at Cheltenham, the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle is currently scheduled as the fourth race on the fourth and final day of the Cheltenham Festival, where it serves as an aperitif for the dish of the day, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Officially registered as the Spa Novices’ Novices’ hurdle, the race is, nonetheless, a prestigious and valuable Grade 1 contest in its own right, worth £147,555 in total prize money at the last count.

Nowadays – that is, since 2023 – open to novice hurdlers aged five years and upwards, the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle was introduced, as the Grade 2 Brit Insurance Novices’ Hurdle, when the Cheltenham Festival was extended from three days to four in 2005. ‘The Potato People’ took over the sponsorship three years later, at which point the race was upgraded to its current Grade 1 status.

As is oft the case at the Cheltenham Festival, Willie Mullins is the leading trainer in the relatively short history of the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, having saddled Penhill (2017), Monkfish (2020), The Nice Guy (2022) and Jasmin De Vaux (2025). Mullins’ stable jockey Paul Townend rode all bar The Nice Guy (having opted for better-fancied stable companion Minella Cocooner, who finished second, on that occasion) and is, jointly, the leading jockey, alongside Sir Anthony McCoy.

Mullins’ most recent winner, Jasmin De Vaux, was, in fact, winning at the Cheltenham Festival for the second year running, having won the Weatherbys Champion Bumper in 2024. The most notable winner of the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, so far, though, was the 2011 winner, Bobs Worth, trained by Nicky Henderson, who went on to win the RSA Chase in 2012 and completed a Festival hat-trick in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2013.