Challow Novices Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends

Explore the Challow Novices' Hurdle at Newbury, a prestigious Grade 1 hurdle race over 2m 4½f. Uncover key trends, past winners, and insights into this exciting National Hunt event featuring top novice hurdlers.
Challow Novices 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.

2025 Challow Novices Hurdle Preview

Scheduled to take place in late December of each year at the Newbury racecourse is the Challow Novices Hurdle, a Grade 1 race run over a distance of two miles, four and a half furlongs during which a total of ten hurdles will be faced.

The race has been a springboard for many good types with the likes of Bindaree, Denman and Wichita Lineman all winning this race early in their illustrious careers and in more recent times the likes of Champ, Thyme Hill and Bravemansgame have won this race.

Challow Novices Hurdle Information:

To see which runners the OLBG racing tipsters are tipping throughout the card that includes this race, head over to the Newbury tips on the day of the race, do they agree with the runners on the trend shortlist or are they predicting other runners? 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 Challow Novices Hurdle market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2015 when the race had an over-round of 108%. The race in 2009 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 123%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Challow 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 Challow 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 Challow Novices Hurdle Trend Analysis.

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

  1. Thyme Hill (4:57.15) in 2019
  2. Messire Des Obeaux (4:57.70) in 2016
  3. Denman (4:59.50) in 2005

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 Challow Novices Hurdle next time out then you would have backed a total of 4 winners. Backing all 19 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -12.82. Remember to use the racing predictions along with the information on this page to find a bet on the 2025 Challow Novices Hurdle.

Over the last 20 renewals, it was Thyme Hill, trained by Philip Hobbs and ridden by Richard Johnson who set the fastest winning time in the Challow Novices Hurdle, the runner won the race in a time of 4:57.15 when winning the race in 2019. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer Jonjo O'Neill and jockey A P McCoy with Taquin Du Seuil who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 5:58.36 in the 2012 renewal.

What the expert says...
Two of the last three winners have come from the Hyde Novices Hurdle, as have a total of eight since 2006 with four of those doing the double.

Andy Powell - Horse Racing Betting Expert - OLBG.com

Challow Novices Hurdle Past Winners

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

YearHorseInfo
2024
5:03.50
The New Lion (GB)
5yo 11-7 9/4
Harry Skelton
Dan Skelton (GB)
2023
5:23.04
Captain Teague (IRE)
5yo 11-7 2/1F
Harry Cobden
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2022
5:14.50
Hermes Allen (FR)
5yo 11-7 11/10F
Harry Cobden
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2021
5:14.68
Stage Star (IRE)
5yo 11-7 5/4F
Harry Cobden
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2020
5:06.10
Bravemansgame (FR)
5yo 11-7 5/2F
Harry Cobden
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2019
4:57.15
Thyme Hill (GB)
5yo 11-7 4/6F
Richard Johnson
Philip Hobbs (GB)
2018
5:10.00
Champ (IRE)
6yo 11-7 1/1F
Barry Geraghty
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2017
5:24.30
Poetic Rhythm (IRE)
6yo 11-7 15/8F
Paddy Brennan
Fergal O'Brien (GB)
2016
4:57.70
Messire Des Obeaux (FR)
4yo 11-7 100/30
Daryl Jacob
Alan King (GB)
2015
5:20.10
Barters Hill (IRE)
5yo 11-7 4/11F
David Bass
Ben Pauling (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

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

  • GB: 20 winners with an additional 26 placings from 137 runners
  • IRE: 0 winners with an additional 1 placing from 4 runners
  • GER: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 1 runner

Challow Novices Hurdle Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Challow Novices Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Paul Nicholls who has won the race five times with those five winners coming from Denman (2005), Bravemansgame (2020), Stage Star (2021), Hermes Allen (2022) and Captain Teague (2023). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Challow Novices Hurdle are Jonjo O'Neill (3 wins), Nicky Henderson (2 wins), Philip Hobbs (2 wins) and Nick Williams (2 wins).

Here are some of the top Challow 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
Paul Nicholls18-5-9-3.65-1.79
Jonjo O'Neill4-3-3+8.38+4.67
Nicky Henderson11-2-6+0.00-0.39
Philip Hobbs5-2-3-2.08-1.62
Nick Williams3-2-2+1.55+0.55
Alan King8-1-2-3.67-2.50
Dan Skelton5-1-2-1.75-0.96
Ben Pauling5-1-2-3.64-1.50
Fergal O'Brien4-1-1-1.12-1.82
Peter Bowen2-1-1+6.00+3.20

Challow Novices Hurdle Jockey Statistics

The leading jockey in the Challow Novices Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Harry Cobden who has won the race four times with those four winners coming from Bravemansgame (2020), Stage Star (2021), Hermes Allen (2022) and Captain Teague (2023). The only other jockey to have recorded multiple wins in the Challow Novices Hurdle is Daryl Jacob (2 wins).

Here are some of the top Challow 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 Cobden8-4-5+2.85+1.95
Daryl Jacob4-2-2+3.21+1.13
Harry Skelton7-1-3-3.75-2.21
David Bass4-1-1-2.64-3.00
Gavin Sheehan7-0-2-7.00-1.27
Sam Twiston-Davies6-0-1-6.00-2.70
Tom Cannon3-0-0-3.00-3.00
Kielan Woods2-0-2-2.00+2.40
Adam Wedge2-0-1-2.00-1.19
Brendan Powell2-0-0-2.00-2.00

Challow Novices Hurdle Trend Analysis

✅ The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +6.81 is when runners were 1st in the betting market.

❌ The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had a highest class won of Class 4, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-42.

The course which has produced the most winners of the Challow Novices Hurdle is Cheltenham, there has been a total number of 9 winners of this race who ran at Cheltenham last time out. The next best course which has produced the second most winners is Newbury, there has been a total number of 4 winners of this race who ran at Newbury 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 133 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 0 winners from a total of 9 runners.

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

  • Kings Theatre (3 Wins)
  • Flemensfirth (2 Wins)
  • Kayf Tara (2 Wins)

Looking over the past renewals, there is only one stallion whose offspring have been disappointed with multiple attempts but no wins in the Challow Novices Hurdle, that stallion is Oscar who has failed to produce a winner from 8 runners.

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Captain Cutter in 2013, winning for Nicky Henderson at odds of 8/1 under the guidance of A P McCoy. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 12 winning favourites in the race. Whilst we wait for the 2025 Challow Novices Hurdle remember you can get daily racing predictions from the top racing tipsters on the best racing tipsters page.

Article Contributor Information

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

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.
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.

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