Rewards4Racing Novices Handicap Chase

by Darren Brett
The Rewards4Racing Novices Handicap Chase was introduced into the Festival in 2011 replacing the old Jewson Novices Handicap and also switching to the first day of the Festival. The new Jewson race is now a championship race off level weights for novices over 2m 5f.

Rewards4Racing Novices Chase Trends

8/8	finished in the top five on all their completed starts over fences
8/8	were aged five to eight
8/8	finished either first or second on their last outing
7/8	were officially rated 123-139
6/8	had won no more than once over fences

Rewards4Racing Novices Chase Analysis

We will continue to use the old Jewson Chase trends but we should remain aware that the new race will now be raced on a different part of the Cheltenham course and as such is over a slightly shorter distance of two and a half miles as opposed to 2m 5f.

The handicap ceiling has also moved down to a maximum of an official rating of 140 (although Hunt Ball managed to exploit the Rules to run off 142!) so be aware of that when making your selections as up to 2010 there was no upper ceiling and this may change the viability of the existing trends.

Rewards4Racing Novices Chase Last Nine Winners

Table below shows the last nine winners of the race, their age/weight at the time of winning, trainer, jockey and odds (starting price).

Year	Horse	Age/Wgt	Trainer	Jockey	Price
2013	Radjhani Express	6-11-7	N Henderson	Mr S Waley-Cohen	16/1
2012	Hunt Ball	7-12-0	Keiran Burke	N Schofield	13/2F
2011	Divers	7-11-4	F Murphy	G Lee	10/1
2010	Copper Bleu	8-11-0	P Hobbs	R Johnson	12/1
2009	Chapoturgeon	5-10-11	P Nicholls	T Murphy	8/1
2008	Finger On The Pulse	7-10-12	T Taaffe	B Geraghty	9/1
2007	LAntartique	7-10-11	F Murphy	G Lee	20/1
2006	Reveillez	7-10-11	J Fanshawe	AP McCoy	9/2F
2005	King Harald	7-10-4	M Bradstock	M Batchelor	9/1

Rewards4Racing Novices Chase Preview

This race will always have a very tight look to it now that the race conditions have changed and the whole field are likely to be very closely matched. One of the old trends where we were looking for a horse with less than eleven stone has definitely gone out the window as every horse in last year's race carried more than that amount.

The existing statistics may not be as significant as in recent years but the 2011 winner Divers did tick most of the trends boxes so we are still looking for a horse who has more to offer the handicapper.

2012 winner Hunt Ball could have been one of those rare exceptions where the horse is improving faster than the handicapper can keep pace with him and his win probably can be ignored from a trends perspective.