Classic Novices’ Hurdle

The Classic Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle race run over 2 miles and 56 yards on the New Course at Cheltenham in late January. The race was inaugurated, over the slightly longer distance of 2 miles and 110 yards, in 2005 and initially run as the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Novices’ Hurdle. Sponsorship subsequently passed to Ballymore Properties, Neptune Investment Management and back to Ballymore in 2018.

Nicky Henderson, who was responsible for Aigle D’Or (2008), Bobs Worth (2011), Santini (2018) and Birchdale (2019), and Alan King, who was reponsible for Batonnier (2012), Ordo Ab Chao (2015), Yanworth (2016), and North Lodge (2022), are the leading trainers in the history of the Classic Novices’ Hurdle. Bobs Worth, of course, went on to complete a notable hat-trick at the Cheltenham Festival, winning the Spa Novices’ Hurdle (2011), the RSA Chase (2012) and the Cheltenham Gold Gup (2013) in successive years.

The 2007 winner, Wichita Lineman, also won twice at subsequent Cheltenham Festivals, justifying favouritism in the Spa Novices’ Hurdle (2007) and the William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase (2009); on the latter occasion, the King’s Theatre gelding was the subject of a memorable ride – later voted the greatest in the history of the Cheltenham Festival – by A.P. McCoy.

The 2023 renewal of the Classic Novices’ Hurdle is scheduled for Festival Trials Day, Saturday, January 28. Horses that feature prominently in the ante-post betting for the Spa Novices’ Hurdle, a.k.a. Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, are an obvious starting point, but punters might like to note that just two of the last ten favourites for the Classic Novices’ Hurdle have won. That said, eight of the last ten winners were in the first three in the betting, with the other two returned at 12/1 and 16/1 respectively.

Joe & Marie Donnelly

Bookmaker turned art collector and property investor Joe Donnelly has rekindled his interest in National Hunt racing in recent years and alongside his wife, Marie, has been thrust into the limelight primarily because of the exploits of Al Boum Photo. Bred and originally owned by French trainer Emmanuel Clayeux, Al Boum Photo was bought by the Donnellys and transferred to Co. Carlow trainer Willie Mullins in December, 2016.

Al Boum Photo made his debut at the Cheltenham Festival in 2018, as a six-year-old, but was held in third place when falling at the final fence in the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase won by Presenting Percy. Nevertheless, he returned to the Festival in 2019 to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and defended his title in 2020, before finishing a highly creditable third on his attempt to become the first horse since Best Mate to complete a hat-trick in the ‘Blue Riband’ event.

Of course, Al Boum Photo isn’t the only horse to carry the increasingly recognisable yellow and black colours of his owners with distinction at the Cheltenham Festival. The luckless Melon finished second in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the Champion Hurdle twice and the Marsh Novices’ Chase at four consecutive Cheltenham Festivals between 2017 and 2020, before pulling up in the Ryanair Chase in 2021. Shishkin, another expensive French import, won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2020 and followed up in the Arkle Challemge Trophy in 2021.