Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle

Day Two of the Cheltenham Festival, dubbed ‘Style Wednesday’ by the Jockey Club, starts with the Grade 1 Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle (aka Turners Novices’ Hurdle) , run over two miles and five furlongs on the Old Course at Prestbury Park and open to novice hurdlers aged four years and upwards. Inaugurated, as the Aldsworth Hurdle, in 1971, the race commemorates William Baring Bingham who, as the owner of Prestbury Park, facilitated a precursor to the Cheltenham Festival in 1902. That said, the race has been run under various sponsored titles down the years, most recently the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle.

Willie Mullins, the most successful trainer in Cheltenham Festival history, has saddled seven winners, namely Fiveforthree (2008), Mikael d’Haguenet (2009), Faugheen (2014), Yorkhill (2016), Sir Gerhard (2022), Impaire Et Passe (2023) and Ballyburn (2024) and just one of the last 10, Willoughby Court, locally trained by Ben Pauling, was trained outside Ireland. Five of the last 10 winners started favourite and all bar Bob Olinger, in 2021, were sent off at odds-on.

It is also worth noting that the Challow Novices’ Hurdle, run over an extended two and a half miles at Newbury in late December, has proved a poor trial for the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle. The Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle could hardly be described as a trial for the Champion Hurdle, but a trio of notable winners, Istabraq (1997), Hardy Eustace (2003) and Faugheen (2014), went on to win the two-mile hurdling championship half a dozen times between them.