Formby Novices Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends

Explore the Formby Novices Hurdle, a prestigious Grade 1 two-mile hurdle race at Aintree. Uncover key trends, past winners, and insights into this exciting National Hunt event featuring top novice hurdlers.
Formby 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 Formby Novices Hurdle Preview

Formally known as the Tolworth Novices Hurdle was run at the Sandown racecourse, however, as of 2023 the race was moved to Aintree and is now run on Boxing Day and is known as the Formby Novices Hurdle, the race is contested over just shy of two miles during which a total of eight hurdles are faced.

The have been some good winners of this race in recent years, future Aintree Hurdle winner L'ami Serge won it in 2015, Yorkhill in 2016 who went on to dual Cheltenham Festival success (Neptune in 2016 & Golden Miller in 2017) and in 2017 Finian's Oscar was successful who went on to further G1 success over both hurdles and fences.

Formby Novices Hurdle Information:

To see which runners the OLBG racing tipsters are tipping throughout the card that includes this race, head over to the Aintree 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 Aintree Racecourse section for links to these.

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How competitive is the Formby 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 107%. The race in 2008 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 116%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the Formby Novices Hurdle, the over-round has been 112%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £112 which is bet.

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

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

  1. Royal Boy (3:58.29) in 2014
  2. Breedsbreeze (4:01.00) in 2008
  3. Lingo (4:02.10) in 2004

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 Formby 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 +9.76. Remember to bookmark the racing tips page to access the OLBG racing picks easily daily.

Over the last 20 renewals, it was Royal Boy, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by A P McCoy who set the fastest winning time in the Formby Novices Hurdle, the runner won the race in a time of 3:58.29 when winning the race in 2014. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer Nicky Henderson and jockey James Bowen with Jango Baie who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 4:27.10 in the 2023 renewal.

What the expert says...
Plenty of these head straight to the Cheltenham Festival to run in the Supreme, five of the seven winners between 2018 & 2023 did so with both Summerville Boy (2018) and Constitution Hill (2022) going on to win the Supreme.

Andy Powell - Horse Racing Betting Expert - OLBG.com

Formby Novices Hurdle Past Winners

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

YearHorseInfo
2024
4:20.93
Potters Charm (IRE)
5yo 11-8 1/1F
Sam Twiston-Davies
Nigel Twiston-Davies (GB)
2023
4:14.10
Tahmuras (FR)
6yo 11-8 5/2
Harry Cobden
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2023
4:27.10
Jango Baie (FR)
4yo 11-8 17/2
James Bowen
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2022
4:22.90
Constitution Hill (GB)
5yo 11-7 2/5F
Nico de Boinville
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2021
4:10.30
Metier (IRE)
5yo 11-7 7/4F
Sean Bowen
Harry Fry (GB)
2020
4:07.60
Fiddlerontheroof (IRE)
6yo 11-7 5/4F
Robbie Power
Colin Tizzard (GB)
2019
4:05.90
Elixir De Nutz (FR)
5yo 11-7 3/1
Tom O'Brien
Colin Tizzard (GB)
2018
4:03.50
Summerville Boy (IRE)
6yo 11-7 8/1
Noel Fehily
Tom George (GB)
2017
4:07.50
Finians Oscar (IRE)
5yo 11-7 11/10F
Tom O'Brien
Colin Tizzard (GB)
2016
4:11.40
Yorkhill (IRE)
6yo 11-7 4/9F
R Walsh
W P Mullins (IRE)

Where have the winning runners come from?

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

  • GB: 19 winners with an additional 21 placings from 120 runners
  • IRE: 1 winner with an additional 2 placings from 7 runners
  • FR: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 1 runner

Formby Novices Hurdle Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Formby Novices Hurdle over the last 20 renewals is Nicky Henderson who has won the race six times with those six winners coming from Minella Class (2011), Captain Conan (2012), Royal Boy (2014), LAmi Serge (2015), Constitution Hill (2022) and Jango Baie (2023). The only other trainer to have recorded multiple wins in the Formby Novices Hurdle is Paul Nicholls (4 wins).

Here are some of the top Formby 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
Nicky Henderson13-6-8+21.84+12.81
Paul Nicholls14-4-7+0.50+0.47
Harry Fry3-1-1-0.25+0.09
Nigel Twiston-Davies2-1-1+0.00-0.37
W P Mullins2-1-1-0.56-0.72
Tom George1-1-1+8.00+5.00
Jeremy Scott1-1-1+3.50+2.19
Jonjo O'Neill1-1-1+1.25+0.78
Gary Moore4-0-1-4.00-2.94
Fergal O'Brien4-0-0-4.00-4.00

Formby Novices Hurdle Jockey Statistics

Here are some of the top Formby 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 Cobden4-1-1-0.50-1.50
Sean Bowen4-1-1-1.25-1.91
Sam Twiston-Davies4-1-3-2.00-0.62
Nico de Boinville3-1-1-1.60-1.75
James Bowen2-1-1+7.50+4.10
Nick Scholfield1-1-1+3.50+2.19
Adam Wedge3-0-1-3.00-0.90
Tom Cannon2-0-1-2.00-0.50
Harry Skelton2-0-0-2.00-1.00
Jack Quinlan2-0-1-2.00-1.25

Formby Novices Hurdle Trend Analysis

✅ The trend factor which produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +12.94 is when runners had 1 season win.

❌ The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 5 career starts in Non-Handicap races, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-17.

The courses that have produced the most winners of the Formby Novices Hurdle are Cheltenham and Ascot, there has been a total number of 5 winners from each of those courses.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 20 winners from a total of 122 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 0 winners from a total of 6 runners.

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

  • Oscar (2 Wins)
  • Presenting (2 Wins)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Captain Conan in 2012, winning for Nicky Henderson at odds of 9/1 under the guidance of Barry Geraghty. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 11 winning favourites in the race. Before placing your bet on the 2025 Formby Novices Hurdle head over to see which other runners today are being backed by the best racing tipsters today.

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Formby 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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