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An ‘Introductory Hurdle’ has just been run at Newbury. Are these a new class of race and if so how do they differ from Novices/Maidens?
If I recall they are for horses that have not ran in more than one race over hurdles.
Correct, GD – they had one at Wetherby two days ago also. They’re into either their third or fourth season of existence and seem to be pretty well patronised in the main.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Thanks GD and GC
Third or fourth season? I really must pay more attention to hurdle races
They were started as introductory novice hurdles, open only to the same horses as any other novice hurdle with the added restriction on the number of runs.
But the one at Newbury today was open to any horse that had only run once over hurdles, even if it had won in a previous season.
I’m not certain that this was intentional and I suspect it might have been a mistake in the conditions of the race when they were set by the Newbury management – a loophole neatly employed by Nicky Henderson.
Correct, GD – they had one at Wetherby two days ago also. They’re into either their third or fourth season of existence and seem to be pretty well patronised in the main.
gc
So are the 4yo Novice Chases – at least in terms of quality but the BHA still only seem to want to have one a year
As has been said one of the crucial things about these races is they allow horses that for whatever reason have only had the one novice run, won but have been off the track for the rest of their novice season, a race to run in. Its hard to have to pitch such a horse straight into handicaps or open races and it gives the handicapper chance to reassess such a horse after a long break. These kind of races and the new novice chasing rules mean bigger fields for hurdle races and that the better horses ae forced to race each other sooner. Remember the old days up north of Reveley or Richards mopping up all the novice races with horses running up 5 or 6 race sequences against 3 or 4 runners? Thats less possible now and is better for everybody, including the punters.
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