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Turners Novices' Hurdle
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THEKING
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Day
Wednesday
Time
13:20
Grade
Grade 1
Distance
2m 5f
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Turners Novices' Hurdle 2026: Cheltenham Festival Betting Preview
Race Details:
Date: 11 March 2026
Grade: 1
Open To: Four-years-old and up
Track: Turf
Length: 4,255 Metres
Location: United Kingdom
Turners Novices' Hurdle 2026: Cheltenham Festival Betting Preview
The Challow Curse, a Faugheen Comparison, and a €3,500 Store Horse Who Beat Willie Mullins at Grade 1 Level
Wednesday, 11 March 2026 | 1:20 PM | Cheltenham Racecourse, Prestbury Park, Gloucestershire
Grade 1 Novice Hurdle (Registered as the Baring Bingham Novices' Hurdle) | 2 Miles 5 Furlongs | Old Course | 10 Hurdles | 4yo+
The Turners Novices' Hurdle kicks off the second day of the Cheltenham Festival and it opens with a question that this race has been asking since 1971: which novice hurdler is good enough to handle the unique demands of two miles and five furlongs around the Old Course at Prestbury Park? The distance is the key. Too long for pure speedsters, too short for plodding stayers, it occupies an awkward middle ground that demands tactical versatility, high-class jumping over ten hurdles, and the stamina to climb the famous Cheltenham hill while rivals are still full of running on either side. Get the trip wrong and you are finished before the last flight. Get it right and you join a roll of honour that includes some of the finest hurdlers in National Hunt history.
Istabraq won this race in 1997 and went on to land three consecutive Champion Hurdles. Hardy Eustace took it in 2003 and did the same the following March. Faugheen - "The Machine" - swept through in 2014 before adding the Champion Hurdle in 2015 on his way to ten straight victories. Last year's winner The New Lion is currently 4.00 favourite for the 2026 Champion Hurdle. This is not just a Grade 1 novice contest. It is a gateway to the highest level of the hurdling game, and winning it at Cheltenham in front of 70,000 people requires something that form figures alone cannot measure.
The 2026 renewal is fascinating because nobody can agree on who the best horse is, or even which horses will actually turn up. Willie Mullins has at least three live contenders spread across entries in this race, the Supreme, and the Albert Bartlett. Nicky Henderson has split his top novices between the Supreme and the Turners. Paul Nicholls is sending his Challow winner here armed with Denman comparisons and the kind of confidence that either looks like genius or hubris depending on how March 11th turns out. And behind all of them, a small-yard Irish trainer who rides his own horses is quietly pointing a €3,500 store horse at one of the most prestigious novice races in the calendar after winning a Grade 1 at Naas in January.
Ninety-four horses hold entries. A maximum of twenty-two will line up. The final field will be shaped by decisions that have not yet been made, but the market is already giving us a clear picture of who the key players are likely to be.
The Ante-Post Market
Time Stamp: Wednesday, February 19, 2026, 12:00 PM ET
Odds Subject to Change
Source: Paddy Power
No Drama This End 4.00 | Mighty Park 4.00 | Doctor Steinberg 5.00 | Skylight Hustle 5.00 | Talk The Talk 5.00 | Ballyfad 7.00 | King Rasko Grey 10.00 | Act Of Innocence 10.00 | I'll Sort That 14.00 | Sober 14.00 | Kripticjim ~25.00 | Taurus Bay ~25.00
The market is unusually open for a race that has historically been dominated by short-priced favourites. Five of the last ten winners were sent off favourite, but four of those five were odds-on. No Drama This End and Mighty Park share favouritism at 4.00, which immediately tells you the market is uncertain. When the favourite for the Turners Novices' Hurdle is 4.00 rather than the sub-2.00 prices we saw for Ballyburn, Sir Gerhard, and Envoi Allen, it means the punters are hedging. They are not wrong to do so.
No Drama This End: The Challow Winner Carrying 155 Years of Bad History
No Drama This End is the English-trained market leader and the horse around whom the entire race revolves. Paul Nicholls' grey six-year-old is unbeaten in three starts over hurdles this season, winning two Grade 2 contests before stepping up to take the Grade 1 Challow Novices' Hurdle at Newbury on December 29th. He beat Klimt Madrik by a length and a quarter under Harry Cobden, who rode prominently throughout and had his mount firmly on the bridle turning for home. It was a controlled, professional performance from a horse who clearly has significant ability.
Nicholls has not been shy about the comparisons. After the Challow, he said: "He's right up there with other Challow winners. He's had three runs over hurdles, and he's won two Grade 2s and a Grade 1, and none of them achieved that. I'm not saying he's Denman, but in ten years I might." The Denman reference is deliberate. Denman won the Challow for Nicholls in 2006 before going on to win the Gold Cup. It is the kind of comparison that gets headlines and sells newspaper columns, but it also sets a bar that very few horses in history have cleared.
Here is the problem. The Challow Hurdle has sent twenty-one winners to the Turners Novices' Hurdle over the years, and every single one of them has been beaten. Zero for twenty-one. Nine managed to finish second or third, including Denman himself, Bravemansgame, and Champ, but none could win. The explanation is straightforward: the Challow is a stamina test on soft winter ground at Newbury, while the Turners is more of a speed test on better spring ground at Cheltenham. The skills that win one do not automatically transfer to the other.
Now, there is a counter-argument. Last year's Challow winner, The New Lion, broke tradition by going on to WIN the Turners at 3/1. He did not just place. He won, beating The Yellow Clay by three-quarters of a length in a thrilling finish. So the curse may be weakening, or The New Lion may simply have been exceptional. Dan Skelton, not Paul Nicholls, trained that horse, and Skelton's record at the Festival is considerably better than Nicholls' in recent years.
The numbers for the Ditcheat operation in this race are stark. Nicholls has sent three previous runners to the Turners and all three were beaten. Cobden is 0 for 5 in the race. Nicholls' recent Challow winners - Hermes Allen (6th), Stage Star (pulled up after tracking Bravemansgame who was 3rd), Captain Teague (redirected to the Albert Bartlett, finished 10th at 6/1) - have all failed to deliver at Cheltenham. The Paddy Power trader Frank Hickey put it bluntly in yesterday's podcast: "The comparison to Denman's a bit much. No Drama This End's a nice horse, but I just don't think the form's up to much. We've been here before - Hermes Allen, Stage Star, Bravemansgame. It's going to be the same result, isn't it?"
In No Drama This End's favour: he ran 9th in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham last year, so he has course experience, and horses who have seen Cheltenham before tend to handle the unique demands of the course better than first-timers. He is going straight to the Festival with no more prep runs, which Nicholls confirmed is deliberate. The horse will be fresh, and if the ground comes up good to soft rather than heavy, the Challow form may transfer better than it has in the past.
Mighty Park: The 38-Length Maiden Winner Compared to Faugheen
If No Drama This End is the horse the market trusts most from Britain, Mighty Park is the horse that has the Irish buzzing. Willie Mullins' five-year-old won a maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse on January 15th by thirty-eight lengths. That is not a typo. He made all the running under Mark Walsh and was so far clear at the second-last that Walsh looked round in disbelief, thinking he must have been going too fast. He was not. The horse's cruising speed was simply in a different postcode from the rest of the field.
Mullins does not make comparisons lightly, and when he invoked the name of Faugheen after the Fairyhouse demolition, the racing world sat up. "Any horse who wins by 38 lengths, you're into Faugheen-type territory and those things don't happen very often," Mullins said at his pre-Cheltenham press day. "From day one I've always thought he was good enough to win a Champion Bumper. That was the sort of ability he was showing me at home." Faugheen, of course, won this very race in 2014 before adding the Champion Hurdle the following year.
Mighty Park is owned by JP McManus and is closely related to the mercurial Might Bite, who won the 2018 King George VI Chase. He was by Walk In The Park out of Knotted Midge, a mare who has already produced two individual Grade 1 winners. The pedigree is soaked in class. The question is whether the performance justifies the comparison or whether thirty-eight lengths over a moderate field at Fairyhouse is being inflated by the reputation of the trainer and the owner.
There are legitimate concerns. Only three of the last twenty-six Turners winners had not competed in a Graded race before Cheltenham. Mighty Park has had exactly one run over hurdles, and it was a maiden. He was originally second reserve for that Fairyhouse race and only got in after two withdrawals. He is five years old, which fits within the trend (11 of the last 12 winners were aged 5 or 6), but he is also raw. Walsh himself said the horse was "raw enough there in front" and that another run "would mean a lot to him." There will be no other run. The next time Mighty Park jumps a hurdle in public, it will be at the Cheltenham Festival against Grade 1 winners.
The other complication is the Supreme. Mighty Park holds entries in both the Supreme and the Turners, and Mullins has not committed to either. Ruby Walsh, speaking on the Paddy Power podcast, said: "I'd chance him in the Turners. He's a very, very good horse, Willie loves him. He's a hell of a good racehorse, but whether he goes two miles or two and a half miles I don't know." If he goes to the Supreme instead, the entire Turners market reshuffles.
Doctor Steinberg: Keen, Brilliant, and Heading Somewhere
Doctor Steinberg is the third Mullins contender in this market, and the one generating the most debate about where he should actually run. The six-year-old won the Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy and Partners Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown's Dublin Racing Festival on February 1st by eight lengths, tanking through the two-mile-six-furlong contest with such enthusiasm that in-running viewers questioned whether he could possibly sustain the gallop. He could. Paul Townend barely moved as Doctor Steinberg pulled further clear of his rivals before producing a bold leap at the last.
Mullins, however, watched the performance and saw something different from what everyone else saw. "I was watching him the other day, I'm looking at how he pulled and dragged his jockey through the race, and I don't think he could do that for three miles around Cheltenham," Mullins said on February 12th. "He'd have a faster pace in the Turners Novices' Hurdle. I'll leave it up to Paul Townend. Maybe he'll find some way of riding him differently." The implication was clear: Mullins is leaning toward the Turners rather than the Albert Bartlett, but the final call has not been made.
The DRF form is significant regardless. The Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle, formerly the Deloitte, has produced six Turners winners when the winner has stepped up to Cheltenham. Samcro (2018), Sir Gerhard (2022), and Ballyburn (2024) all won at the DRF and then won the Turners. If Doctor Steinberg lines up here, the trial form is about as strong as it gets. He is six years old, Irish-trained, a Grade 1 winner, and from the Mullins yard. He ticks every single box.
Ruby Walsh, however, picked him for the Albert Bartlett on the same podcast, believing the stronger pace in a bigger field would help settle him. The Turners/Albert Bartlett decision is Mullins' biggest remaining puzzle, and it may not be resolved until race week.
Act Of Innocence: Henderson's Confirmed Challenger
While others dither over entries, Nicky Henderson has made his move. Act Of Innocence was scratched from the Supreme Novices' Hurdle on February 10th and confirmed as Henderson's challenger for the Turners. The six-year-old won the Sidney Banks Memorial Novices' Hurdle at Huntingdon impressively in early February, with Nico de Boinville barely having to move as he breezed clear under hands and heels.
Henderson said after the Sidney Banks that the path was now mapped out. Stablemate Old Park Star is earmarked for the Supreme, and Act Of Innocence's stamina and class point firmly toward the longer trip. The Sidney Banks has decent form as a trial: Shishkin won it in 2020 before landing the Supreme. Henderson added: "He's always looked a very nice horse and he's come to us ready made. You just can't fault him."
At 10.00, Act Of Innocence represents proper each-way value if the Henderson/de Boinville combination fires. Henderson knows Cheltenham better than almost anyone, and having a confirmed target removes one layer of uncertainty in a race where most connections are still juggling options.
I'll Sort That: The Slaney Winner and the Fairy Tale Nobody Saw Coming
If Cheltenham is about stories as much as statistics, then I'll Sort That brings one of the best narratives heading into the 2026 Festival. Bought for just €3,500 as a store horse, he is trained AND ridden by Declan Queally from his small yard in County Waterford. On January 9th, Queally pointed him at the Grade 1 Slaney Novice Hurdle at Naas and beat Willie Mullins' well-fancied Sortudo in a prolonged stretch duel to deliver the yard's first ever Grade 1 winner.
Queally's post-race reaction captured the enormity of the moment: "For me, this is like a Junior C player being allowed to play in an All-Ireland. Going to the start, I've got Paul Townend on one side of me and Jack Kennedy on the other. I'm thinking 'I'm not supposed to be here', but I try to blend in." The horse is four from four this season, has shown genuine toughness in every victory, and has been specifically aimed at the Festival after skipping the Dublin Racing Festival in early February.
The Slaney form as a Turners trial is historically excellent. Envoi Allen won the Slaney in 2020 and the Turners. Bob Olinger won the Slaney in 2021 and the Turners. The Slaney winner placed in 2025, 2023, 2018, 2013, and 2012. It is the most reliable Irish trial for this race outside of the DRF itself. At 14.00, I'll Sort That offers the Slaney form, an unbeaten record, and the kind of gutsy front-running style that can work at Cheltenham if the pace is honest.
Queally added: "He does stay well, but he's very versatile. If you go back and look at his win at Listowel, he showed an unbelievable amount of speed the whole way over two miles, so I don't think trip matters." Entries in both the Turners and the Albert Bartlett leave options open, but the two-and-a-half-mile trip looks ideal based on his racing style.
Skylight Hustle, Ballyfad, and the Elliott Factor
Gordon Elliott has two live contenders in Skylight Hustle (5.00) and Ballyfad (7.00), both of whom ran at the Dublin Racing Festival and both of whom have form ties to this race. Skylight Hustle won a Grade 1 novice hurdle earlier this season, and his form was franked when Talk The Talk - the horse who fell late when travelling best against him - went on to win the DRF Grade 1 in impressive fashion. Jack Kennedy rode Skylight Hustle and was reportedly of the opinion that his mount would have beaten Talk The Talk had that rival not fallen. Whether Kennedy rides Skylight Hustle or Ballyfad here will be a significant market signal.
Ballyfad finished second to Talk The Talk at the DRF and ran a solid race given the strong pace. At 7.00 he offers proven Grade 1 form from the dominant trial weekend and comes from a trainer who has won this race before with Envoi Allen (2020) and Samcro (2018). Elliott's runners tend to improve for their Festival prep runs, and the DRF form has a strong track record of translating to Cheltenham three weeks later.
King Rasko Grey: The Mullins Sleeper at 10.00
King Rasko Grey adds another dimension to the Mullins juggling act. The six-year-old was beaten at the DRF but Mullins dropped an interesting comment during his stable tour, saying the horse "looked like a pregnant mare at the DRF and that he'd improve a lot." Frank Hickey, the Paddy Power trader, was particularly keen on this angle, noting that King Rasko Grey's bumper form was strong and that stepping up in trip to two and a half miles should suit. "If you watch the DRF race back it looks like he's going to win jumping the last, but just doesn't have a turn of foot," Hickey said. At 10.00, he is another Mullins runner with scope for improvement, but the historical trend against last-time-out losers is worth noting - sixteen of the last eighteen Turners winners won their most recent start.
Kripticjim and Taurus Bay: Course and Distance Form at Big Prices
Down at around 25.00, two British-trained six-year-olds bring something that most of the market leaders do not: proven Cheltenham course and distance form. Kripticjim, trained by Joe Tizzard, won the Grade 2 AIS Novices' Hurdle over course and distance on January 24th at 14/1, beating Taurus Bay in a photo finish. It was three from four over timber for a horse who had improved with every run this season.
Tizzard said afterwards that the ground in March would determine whether Kripticjim runs in the Turners or the Albert Bartlett. Rory Delargy, speaking on yesterday's Paddy Power podcast, picked Kripticjim as his each-way play, saying: "I was really impressed with Taurus Bay's run behind Kripticjim at Cheltenham in January. He travelled best in the race and he was only narrowly beaten. Both of those runners are horses who can show more and they'll be reasonable prices." Course and distance form at the Festival track is worth its weight in gold, and at 25.00, the market appears to be underestimating what these two achieved in January.
Trends and Statistics
Time Stamp: Wednesday, February 19, 2026, 12:00 PM ET
Odds Subject to Change
Source: Paddy Power
The Turners Novices' Hurdle has been one of the most punter-friendly races at the Cheltenham Festival over the past decade, with the market consistently pointing toward the winner. Eight of the last ten winners came from the top three in the betting, and only one winner since 2007 has been returned at odds greater than 8/1 (Willoughby Court at 14/1 in 2017). That is reassuring for anyone backing one of the market leaders, but the unusually open nature of this year's market - with joint-favourites at 4.00 rather than the usual odds-on banker - suggests that 2026 could be an outlier.
Eleven of the last twelve winners were aged five or six. The exception was Sir Gerhard, who was seven when he won in 2022. This trend strongly favours the majority of the market leaders, with No Drama This End, Doctor Steinberg, Skylight Hustle, Kripticjim, and Act Of Innocence all six years old, and Mighty Park and Ballyfad both five.
Eight of the last ten winners were trained in Ireland. The New Lion broke the run in 2025 for Dan Skelton, but the weight of Irish-trained talent remains formidable. Willie Mullins has won this race seven times, more than any other trainer, and if he sends two or three runners this year, the likelihood of at least one of them hitting the frame is high. Gordon Elliott has won twice (Samcro and Envoi Allen) and Henry de Bromhead once (Bob Olinger).
Eleven of the last twelve winners won their most recent start before Cheltenham. The exception was Massini's Maguire, who finished second on his most recent outing. Twelve of twelve at least placed. This is a race where proven form and winning momentum matter enormously. Horses coming off defeats face a very steep historical hill.
Six of the last ten winners had won a Grade 1 over hurdles before winning the Turners. Three others had won a Grade 2 or competed at the highest level. Only City Island (2019) won without prior Graded hurdle experience, and he was trained by the relatively obscure Martin Brassil, proving that the race occasionally rewards improvers from smaller yards.
The Challow Hurdle as a trial: twenty-one winners to run in the Turners, zero to win, nine to place. The New Lion won the Challow last year AND the Turners, but he was trained by Skelton, not Nicholls, and his is the only positive data point in over twenty years of history.
The DRF Grade 1 as a trial: when the winner has lined up in the Turners, the record is three from three in recent years (Samcro 2018, Sir Gerhard 2022, Ballyburn 2024). If Doctor Steinberg runs here rather than the Albert Bartlett, this trend is worth serious attention.
The Slaney at Naas: the winner has won the Turners in two of the last four years (Envoi Allen 2020, Bob Olinger 2021) and placed in five of the last ten. I'll Sort That won this year's edition.
Race History
The Turners Novices' Hurdle was established in 1971 as the Aldsworth Hurdle, a year that feels like yesterday in Cheltenham time. It was later renamed the Baring Bingham Novices' Hurdle in honour of the man who organised the first Cheltenham Festival in 1902, and it has carried various sponsor names over the decades: Sun Alliance, Neptune, Ballymore, Gallagher, and now Turners, the transport company who took over the naming rights in 2025.
The race has served as the launching pad for some of the greatest hurdlers in National Hunt history. Istabraq's victory in 1997 announced the arrival of a horse who would dominate the Champion Hurdle for three consecutive years. Hardy Eustace's win in 2003 was the first step toward his own Champion Hurdle success. Faugheen's imperious victory in 2014, sent off 6/4 favourite, began a sequence of ten straight wins that earned him the nickname "The Machine." More recently, Sir Gerhard (2022) and Ballyburn (2024) both won this race as part of unbeaten novice campaigns for Willie Mullins.
The race is run over two miles and five furlongs on the Old Course, which uses the stiffer finish up Cheltenham's famous hill. There are ten hurdles to negotiate, and the demands of the trip and terrain mean that horses need to be both quick enough to travel at speed through the early and middle stages of the race and tough enough to stay the extra half-mile when the hill kicks in. It is this combination that makes the Turners such a reliable indicator of future championship-calibre hurdlers.
The most successful jockey in the history of the race is Ruby Walsh with four wins (Fiveforthree 2008, Mikael d'Haguenet 2009, Faugheen 2014, Yorkhill 2016), and the most successful trainer is Willie Mullins with seven (Fiveforthree, Mikael d'Haguenet, Faugheen, Yorkhill, Sir Gerhard, Impaire Et Passe, Ballyburn). Paul Townend won three consecutive renewals from 2022 to 2024 before finishing third on Final Demand last year.
Quick Reference: Key Odds
Time Stamp: Wednesday, February 19, 2026, 12:00 PM ET
Odds Subject to Change
Source: Paddy Power
No Drama This End 4.00 | Trainer: Paul Nicholls | Jockey: Harry Cobden
Mighty Park 4.00 | Trainer: Willie Mullins | Jockey: Mark Walsh
Doctor Steinberg 5.00 | Trainer: Willie Mullins | Jockey: Paul Townend (TBC)
Skylight Hustle 5.00 | Trainer: Gordon Elliott | Jockey: Jack Kennedy (TBC)
Talk The Talk 5.00 | Trainer: Joseph O'Brien | Jockey: JJ Slevin (likely Supreme)
Ballyfad 7.00 | Trainer: Gordon Elliott | Jockey: TBC
King Rasko Grey 10.00 | Trainer: Willie Mullins | Jockey: TBC
Act Of Innocence 10.00 | Trainer: Nicky Henderson | Jockey: Nico de Boinville
I'll Sort That 14.00 | Trainer: Declan Queally | Jockey: Declan Queally
Kripticjim ~25.00 | Trainer: Joe Tizzard | Jockey: Brendan Powell
Taurus Bay ~25.00 | Trainer: Ben Pauling | Jockey: TBC
2025 Turners Novices' Hurdle Result
1st The New Lion (3.00, 2/1) - Dan Skelton / Harry Skelton
2nd The Yellow Clay (3.50, 5/2) - Gordon Elliott / Jack Kennedy - ¾L
3rd Final Demand (2.50, 6/4f) - Willie Mullins / Paul Townend - 5½L
Last 10 Winners
2025: The New Lion 3.00 (2/1) - Dan Skelton
2024: Ballyburn 1.50 (1/2f) - Willie Mullins
2023: Impaire Et Passe 3.50 (5/2) - Willie Mullins
2022: Sir Gerhard 1.73 (8/11f) - Willie Mullins
2021: Bob Olinger 2.50 (6/4f) - Henry de Bromhead
2020: Envoi Allen 1.57 (4/7f) - Gordon Elliott
2019: City Island 9.00 (8/1) - Martin Brassil
2018: Samcro 1.73 (8/11f) - Gordon Elliott
2017: Willoughby Court 15.00 (14/1) - Ben Pauling
2016: Yorkhill 2.25 (5/4f) - Willie Mullins
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