Newbury Handicap Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends

Explore the Newbury Handicap Hurdle at Newbury, a prestigious Grade 3 race over 2mยฝf. Delve into past winners, top trainers, and jockeys while uncovering key trends that shape this exciting event, showcasing elite talent in one of Britain's richest handicap hurdles.
Newbury Handicap Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends
Andy Powell
Andy Powell Content Editor

Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.

2026 Newbury Handicap Hurdle Preview

Scheduled to take place in February of each year at the Newbury racecourse is the Newbury Handicap Hurdle which is better known to most as the Betfair Hurdle, Britain's most valuable Handicap Hurdle.

This Premier Handicap race is steeped in history and was first run in 1963 (at Aintree) and was known as the 'Schweppes Gold Trophy' until the Tote took over sponsorship in 1986 when it became the 'Tote Gold Trophy Hurdle' and then the Totesport Trophy until 2012 when Betfair took over with their run ending in 2024.

Newbury Handicap Hurdle Information:

Our dedicated Newbury tips page will not only bring you predictions from the OLBG racing tipsters for the upcoming card that includes the Newbury Handicap Hurdle but will also have predictions for each meeting at Newbury throughout the season so be sure to head over there. You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Other Principal Races at Newbury Racecourse section for links to these.

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How competitive is the Newbury Handicap Hurdle market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2023 when the race had an over-round of 121%. The race in 2018 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 139%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Newbury Handicap Hurdle, the over-round has been 131%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £131 which is bet.

Below you will find the 2026 Newbury Handicap Hurdle Trends, see which patterns have occurred over the recent renewals that you may be able to use for the next renewal, we also have a section that looks at the Newbury Handicap Hurdle Trend Analysis.

These are the top three quickest-run Newbury Handicap Hurdle over the last 20 renewals:

  1. Aucunrisque (3:41.40) in 2023
  2. Al Dancer (3:44.60) in 2019
  3. Pic DOrhy (3:48.00) in 2020

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 20 if you had followed the winner of the Newbury Handicap Hurdle next time out then you would have backed a total of 0 winners. Backing all 19 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -19.00. Remember to bookmark the racing tips page to access the OLBG racing picks easily daily.

The runner that holds the record over the past 20 renewals for the slowest time in the race was set in the 2013 renewal when My Tent Or Yours from Nicky Henderson under the guidance of A P McCoy, won in a time of 4:10.70, whilst at the other end of the spectrum, Aucunrisque, trained by Chris Gordon and ridden by Nick Scholfield set the quickest time of 3:41.40 in the 2023 renewal.

What the expert says...
All but three of the winners between 2004 and 2024 went to the Cheltenham Festival next time out. However, there has been limited success. You have to go back to Spirit Leader (County Hurdle) in 2003 to find the last to win at Cheltenham.

Andy Powell - Horse Racing Betting Expert - OLBG.com

Newbury Handicap Hurdle Past Winners

Here are the Newbury Handicap Hurdle past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. The horse's trainer and the jockey at the time of winning the Newbury Handicap Hurdle are also displayed, along with the starting price at which the horse was sent off.

YearHorseInfo
2025
3:56.90
Joyeuse (FR)
6yo 10-7 9/2
Nico de Boinville
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2024
3:57.70
Iberico Lord (FR)
6yo 11-8 11/2
Nico de Boinville
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2023
3:41.40
Aucunrisque (FR)
7yo 11-4 9/1
Nick Scholfield
Chris Gordon (GB)
2022
3:49.40
Glory And Fortune (IRE)
7yo 11-8 20/1
Stan Sheppard
Tom Lacey (GB)
2021
3:50.48
Soaring Glory (IRE)
6yo 10-7 17/2
Jonjo O'Neill Jr
Jonjo O'Neill (GB)
2020
3:48.00
Pic DOrhy (FR)
5yo 11-5 33/1
Harry Cobden
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2019
3:44.60
Al Dancer (FR)
6yo 11-8 5/2F
Sam Twiston-Davies
Nigel Twiston-Davies (GB)
2018
4:08.90
Kalashnikov (IRE)
5yo 11-5 8/1F
Jack Quinlan
Amy Murphy (GB)
2017
3:57.00
Ballyandy (GB)
6yo 11-1 3/1F
Sam Twiston-Davies
Nigel Twiston-Davies (GB)
2016
4:08.70
Agrapart (FR)
5yo 10-5 16/1
Lizzie Kelly (5lbs)
Nick Williams (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Newbury Handicap Hurdle have been based:

  • GB: 19 winners with an additional 52 placings from 368 runners
  • IRE: 1 winner with an additional 5 placings from 38 runners
  • FR: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 1 runner

Newbury Handicap Hurdle Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Newbury Handicap Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Nicky Henderson who has won the race four times with those four winners coming from Geos (2004), My Tent Or Yours (2013), Iberico Lord (2024) and Joyeuse (2025). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Newbury Handicap Hurdle are Gary Moore (3 wins), Nigel Twiston-Davies (3 wins), Paul Nicholls (2 wins) and Jonjo O'Neill (2 wins). Multiple trainers have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the Newbury Handicap Hurdle, Philip Hobbs (0-23), Alan King (0-23), David Pipe (0-19), W P Mullins (0-18), Evan Williams (0-10) and Dan Skelton (0-10) have all failed to produce a single winner despite sending multiple runners to the race.

Here are some of the top Newbury Handicap Hurdle trainer statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

TrainerR-W-PWinEW
Nicky Henderson47-4-8-12.00-9.99
Gary Moore22-3-7+65.00+42.75
Nigel Twiston-Davies18-3-6+23.50+17.20
Paul Nicholls29-2-6+8.75+1.66
Jonjo O'Neill14-2-3+2.50-0.69
Chris Gordon12-1-3-2.00+5.13
John Quinn6-1-1+7.00+2.50
Tom Lacey4-1-1+17.00+9.50
Nick Williams2-1-1+15.00+9.00
Amy Murphy1-1-1+8.00+5.00

Newbury Handicap Hurdle Jockey Statistics

There are two leading jockeys in the Newbury Handicap Hurdle over the last 20 renewals with both Sam Twiston-Davies and Nico de Boinville who have both won the race two times. Sam Twiston-Davies winners have been with Ballyandy (2017) and Al Dancer (2019). Nico de Boinville winners have been with Iberico Lord (2024) and Joyeuse (2025).

Here are some of the top Newbury Handicap Hurdle jockey statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

JockeyR-W-PWinEW
Sam Twiston-Davies10-2-4-2.50-1.25
Nico de Boinville8-2-2+4.00+0.25
Nick Scholfield7-1-1+3.00-0.37
Harry Cobden6-1-1+28.00+15.63
Jonjo O'Neill Jr5-1-2+4.50+14.31
Jack Quinlan4-1-2+5.00+3.63
Stan Sheppard3-1-1+18.00+10.50
Dougie Costello3-1-1+10.00+5.50
James Bowen6-0-2-6.00-1.00
Tom Cannon5-0-3-5.00+7.56

Newbury Handicap Hurdle Trend Analysis

✅ The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +42.75 is when runners ran in a Non-Handicap when last winning.

❌ The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 3 career starts on the going, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-65.

The course which has produced the most winners of the Newbury Handicap Hurdle is Sandown, there has been a total number of 4 winners of this race who ran at Sandown last time out. The next best courses which have produced the second most winners are Cheltenham and Ascot, there has been a total number of 3 winners from each of those courses.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 19 winners from a total of 392 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 1 winner from a total of 15 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, these are the stallions whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Newbury Handicap Hurdle:

  • Fame And Glory (2 Wins)
  • No Risk At All (2 Wins)

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the Newbury Handicap Hurdle despite multiple attempts:

  • Authorized (0 Wins from 9 runners)
  • Galileo (0 Wins from 6 runners)
  • Montjeu (0 Wins from 6 runners)
  • Arcadio (0 Wins from 5 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Heathcote in 2007, winning for Gary Moore at odds of 50/1 under the guidance of Jamie Moore. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 6 winning favourites in the race. Ahead of the 2026 Newbury Handicap Hurdle why not head over to the best racing tipster page to see what the tipsters are backing today?

Route to the Newbury Handicap Hurdle

Many trainers will target races to use as prep races before coming to the Newbury Handicap Hurdle, these are the races which the recent winners ran in before coming here:

InfoLast Race
2025 - Joyeuse
Cheltenham - 2nd of 12 (5/2)
BetMGM Mares Handicap Hurdle
2024 - Iberico Lord
Ascot - 7th of 9 (11/4)
Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle
2023 - Aucunrisque
Kempton - 2nd of 4 (4/1)
Ladbrokes Wayward Lad Novices Chase
2022 - Glory And Fortune
Kempton - 2nd of 5 (29/1)
Christmas Hurdle
2021 - Soaring Glory
Ascot - 3rd of 6 (10/3)
Sky Bet Supreme Trial Novices Hurdle
2020 - Pic DOrhy
Ascot - 6th of 8 (7/1)
Matchbook Holloways Handicap Hurdle
2019 - Al Dancer
Cheltenham - 1st of 9 (3/1)
Catesby Handicap Hurdle
2018 - Kalashnikov
Sandown - 2nd of 5 (2/1)
Formby Novices Hurdle
2017 - Ballyandy
Sandown - 2nd of 7 (11/10)
Neptune Investment Management Novices Hurdle
2016 - Agrapart
Sandown - 3rd of 5 (10/1)
Formby Novices Hurdle

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Newbury Handicap Hurdle Preview are at hand, Andy and James. They both work on the Horse racing tips team team looking after the tipsters and managing the tips settlement, whilst also creating and managing all of the horse racing event previews for National Hunt Racing.

James Banting

James Banting

Tipster Competition Assistant

James Banting, a passionate horse racing enthusiast and aficionado, brings a wealth of experience to OLBG, having attended numerous race meetings over the years. His background working with the Jockey Club provides him with a unique insider's perspective on the industry.
Andy Powell

Andy Powell

Content Editor

Andy, a seasoned horse racing expert with over 15 years of experience, possesses a comprehensive understanding of the sport, from delving into complex statistical data for jump racing in the UK and Ireland to crafting insightful national hunt racing blogs for OLBG.

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