What is the Challow Novices’ Hurdle?

The Challow Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 1 contest run over 2 miles, 4 furlongs and 118 yards at Newbury in late December. As the name suggests, the race is open to horses aged four years and upwards who, at the start of the current season, have yet to win a hurdle race. At the time of its inauguration in 1971, the race was a ‘juvenile’ hurdle – that is, restricted to horses aged three years at the start of the current season – but older horses were admitted a decade later. The Challow Hurdle was awarded Grade 1 status in 1991.

Undoubtedly the best horse to win the Challow Novices’ Hurdle was Denman who, on New Year’s Day, 2006, easily beat The Cool Guy by 21 lengths – ‘in the style of one destined for the very top’, according to Timeform – in a rescheduled event at Cheltenham after the original Newbury fixture was abandoned due to frost. Denman, of course, went on to win the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup at successive Cheltenham Festivals and was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 183.

The 2022 running of the Challow Novices’ Hurdle is scheduled for Saturday, December 31, when it is the feature race on a seven-race card at the Berkshire course. At the time of writing, the clocks are yet to go back and the start of the National Hunt season proper is still some weeks away, so ante-post prices for the Challow Novices’ Hurdle are not yet available. However, reigning champion trainer Paul Nicholls has won the race four times, including the last twice, so his entries are always worth a second look. Leading ‘bumper’ performers Henri The Second and Timeforatune are just two promising types set to go over hurdles for the Ditcheat handler in the coming season.