Bristol Novices Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Christmas Meeting)

Explore the Bristol Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham's Christmas Meeting. Delve into past winners, top trainers, and jockeys, along with key trends that reveal the secrets to success in this important novice hurdle race ahead of the prestigious Cheltenham Festival.
Bristol Novices Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Christmas Meeting)
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.

2025 Bristol Novices Hurdle Preview

Registered as the Bristol Novices Hurdle, the race is currently run as the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle on the Saturday of The Christmas Meeting at Cheltenham in December.

This Grade 2 is open to novice hurdlers who are aged four or older and is contested over a distance just shy of three miles during which a total of twelve hurdles will be faced.

Optimize your Bristol Novices Hurdle picks with our comprehensive analysis of previous race trends and trainer statistics, then explore the Cheltenham free bets for added value.

Bristol Novices Hurdle Information:

If you are interested in other predictions at Cheltenham then head over to the Cheltenham tips page to see which runners are being supported by the OLBG racing tipsters and also compare those predictions to the runners that make the trend shortlist when added below. You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Other Principal Races at Cheltenham Racecourse section for links to these.

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How competitive is the Bristol Novices Hurdle market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2014 when the race had an over-round of 108%. The race in 2004 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 117%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Bristol Novices Hurdle, the over-round has been 113%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £113 which is bet.

Below you will find the 2025 Bristol Novices 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 Bristol Novices Hurdle Trend Analysis.

These are the top three quickest-run Bristol Novices Hurdle over the last 20 renewals:

  1. Black Jack Ketchum (5:56.30) in 2005
  2. Deireadh Re (5:57.17) in 2011
  3. Kings Palace (5:57.31) in 2013

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 Bristol Novices Hurdle next time out then you would have backed a total of 7 winners. Backing all 19 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of +6.75. Ahead of the 2025 Bristol Novices Hurdle why not head over to the racing predictions for tips on other races today?

When looking over the past 20 renewals, a time of 5:56.30 was set by Black Jack Ketchum in 2005, which is the quickest time over that period, the runner was trained by Jonjo O'Neill and ridden by A P McCoy. The slowest winning time was set in 2003 when Comply Or Die won in a time of 6:42.00, booked to ride was A P McCoy by the trainer M C Pipe.

What the expert says...
The Hyde Novices Hurdle, run at the November meeting, serves as a good prep race for this. It has produced seven winners since 2005, four of whom did the double.

Andy Powell - Horse Racing Betting Expert - OLBG.com

Bristol Novices Hurdle Past Winners

Here are the Bristol Novices 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 Bristol Novices Hurdle are also displayed, along with the starting price at which the horse was sent off.

Race Notes: Abandoned in 2022 due to frozen ground.

YearHorseInfo
2024
5:58.57
Jet Blue (FR)
5yo 11-5 9/2
James Reveley
D Cottin (FR)
2023
6:01.20
Shanagh Bob (IRE)
5yo 11-0 15/8F
Nico de Boinville
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2021
6:02.94
Blazing Khal (IRE)
5yo 11-3 1/1F
Donal McInerney
C Byrnes (IRE)
2020
6:13.06
Make Good (IRE)
5yo 10-12 12/1
Richard Johnson
John C McConnell (IRE)
2019
6:18.90
Redford Road (GB)
5yo 10-12 14/1
Jamie Bargary
Nigel Twiston-Davies (GB)
2018
6:12.00
Rockpoint (GB)
5yo 10-12 11/2
Tom Scudamore
Colin Tizzard (GB)
2017
6:00.40
Kilbricken Storm (IRE)
6yo 10-12 3/1
Harry Cobden
Colin Tizzard (GB)
2016
6:05.60
Wholestone (IRE)
5yo 11-5 13/8F
Daryl Jacob
Nigel Twiston-Davies (GB)
2015
6:04.40
Unowhatimeanharry (GB)
7yo 11-4 11/10F
Noel Fehily
Harry Fry (GB)
2014
6:02.20
Blaklion (GB)
5yo 11-7 9/4
Ryan Hatch
Nigel Twiston-Davies (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Bristol Novices Hurdle have been based:

  • GB: 17 winners with an additional 28 placings from 138 runners
  • IRE: 2 winners with an additional 1 placing from 7 runners
  • FR: 1 winner with an additional 0 placings from 2 runners

Bristol Novices Hurdle Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Bristol Novices Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Nigel Twiston-Davies who has won the race three times with those three winners coming from Blaklion (2014), Wholestone (2016) and Redford Road (2019). The only other trainer to have recorded multiple wins in the Bristol Novices Hurdle is Nicky Henderson (2 wins).

Here are some of the top Bristol Novices 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
Nigel Twiston-Davies15-3-5+5.88+2.83
Nicky Henderson5-2-2+1.88-0.07
Paul Nicholls12-1-5-9.00-4.97
Alan King4-1-2+1.00+1.10
Jonjo O'Neill4-1-1-2.33-2.58
Tom George3-1-1-1.20-1.52
John C McConnell2-1-2+11.00+7.80
Harry Fry2-1-1+0.10-0.31
C Byrnes2-1-1+0.00-0.37
David Pipe2-1-1-0.09-0.43

Bristol Novices Hurdle Jockey Statistics

Here are some of the top Bristol Novices 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
Harry Cobden3-1-2+1.00-1.25
Daryl Jacob3-1-2-0.37+0.27
Jamie Bargary1-1-1+14.00+8.40
James Reveley1-1-1+4.50+2.81
Nico de Boinville1-1-1+1.88+1.13
Mattie Batchelor1-1-1+1.10+0.69
Donal McInerney1-1-1+1.00+0.63
Harry Skelton7-0-0-7.00-7.00
Sam Twiston-Davies6-0-1-6.00-4.30
Adam Wedge3-0-1-3.00+0.80

Bristol Novices Hurdle Trend Analysis

✅ The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +10.46 is when runners had 2 wins in the past 90 days.

❌ The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 0 places in the past 90 days, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-23.

The course which has produced the most winners of the Bristol Novices Hurdle is Cheltenham, there has been a total number of 9 winners of this race who ran at Cheltenham last time out.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 20 winners from a total of 142 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 0 winners from a total of 5 runners.

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

  • Old Vic (3 Wins)
  • Oscar (2 Wins)

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

  • Flemensfirth (0 Wins from 7 runners)
  • Milan (0 Wins from 6 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Flight Leader in 2006, winning for Colin Tizzard at odds of 16/1 under the guidance of Joe Tizzard. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 12 winning favourites in the race. Remember to bookmark the best racing tipsters page so you can get easy access to the best OLBG racing tipsters.

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Bristol Novices Hurdle Preview are at hand, Andy and Darren. 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.

Darren Brett

Darren Brett

Tipster Competition Manager

Darren has worked in the horse racing industry for decades bringing to OLBG for the last 20 years a wealth of knowledge, creating much of our content on these sports. Darren also manages our Grand National Guide and is the go-to font of knowledge for the world's greatest steeplechase.
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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