Can’t see this as any great loss and no doubt the 8/1 on winner last year was the final straw. It’s been the Paul Nicholls benefit fund for the last four years and often enough before that. I’d hazard a guess that they couldn’t find a sponsor for 2026 and also that ITV had indicated they wouldn’t show it live.
The only surprise is that the JCR think the race is worth continuing elsewhere, and that it has somehow remained a Grade 2 race for so long. With a £100k handicap hurdle at Ascot one week before Wincanton, and the Greatwood one week after Wincanton, the Elite Hurdle was in the position of needing ‘Not Very’ as a prefix.
It’s still a competitive card with good prize money.