As the name suggests, the Top Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 1 novices’ hurdle, run over 2 miles and 103 yards on the Mildmay Course at Aintree in early April. Open to horses aged four years and upwards who, at the start of the current season, have yet to win over hurdles, the race is currently scheduled for the second day of the three-day Grand National Festival.

The Top Novices’ Hurdle was inaugurated in 1976, awarded Grade 2 status following the revision of the National Hunt Pattern in 1989 and further elevated, to Grade 1 status, in 2016. In its history, two winners – Granville Again (1991) and Buveur D’Air (2016) – have gone on to win the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, while the 2012 winner, Darlan, was ante-post favourite for the two-mile hurdling championship when suffering a fatal fall at Doncaster a month before the 2013 Cheltenham Festival.

The position of the Top Novices’ Hurdle in the National Hunt calendar makes it an obvious late-season target for horses that previously contested the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival; the 2022 winner, Jonbon, for example, finished second at Cheltenham. However, the last horse to win both races was the ill-fated Browne’s Gazette, trained by Michael Dickinson, way back in 1984.

Nicky Henderson, trainer of Darlan and Buveur D’Air, also saddled General Miller (2010), My Tent Or Yours (2013), Josses Hill (2014) and Jonbon (2022) to victory for a total of six wins and is the most successul handler in the history of the Top Novices’ Hurdle. Granted his previous record, punters might do well to keep an eye on the Master of Seven Barrows, who appears to have a strong team of novice hurdlers for the 2022/23 season.

The Sefton Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 1 novices’ hurdle race run over 3 miles and 149 yards on the Mildmay Course at Aintree in early April. Open to horses aged four years and upwards, the race was inaugurated, as the White Satin Novices’ Hurdle, in 1988, before being renamed – after the village of Sefton, approximately four miles northwest of Aintree Racecourse – five years later.

The White Satin Novices’ Hurdle was awarded Grade 2 status in 1991 and, under its present title, promoted to Grade 1 status. It is currently scheduled for the second day of the three-day Grand National Festival, a.k.a. Ladies’ Day.

The Sefton Novices’ Hurdle is an obvious target for horses that previously contested the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle – a similar Grade 1 race run over the slightly shorter distance of 2 miles, 7 furlongs and 213 yards – at the Cheltenham Festival, although the last horse to win both races was At Fishers Cross. Nicky Henderson, who saddled the inaugural winner of the White Satin Novices’ Hurdle, Rustle, way back in 1988, has since added three more – Beat That (2014), Santini (2018) and Champ (2019) – to his tally and is the leading trainer in the history of the race.

Predicting the result of any race, let alone a novices’ hurdle race, that is many months away is nigh on impossible. However, prospective ante-post punters could so well on some promising youngsters from Seven Barrows, including the unbeaten Firestep, who was prevented from running in 2022 by a series of ‘niggly problems’, but could yet take high order in the novice hurdling division. According to Nicky Henderson, ‘It might be a blessing Firestep didn’t run as he’s a massive, big horse now.’

Well, I mean it actually is 2021, but in comparison to the 2020 Grand National which was a ‘virtual’ affair it’s certainly time to party this time around. Granted this year’s Grand National won’t have roaring Aintree on-course crowds, but it is at least taking place, and indeed shaping up to be something special. With expected TV audiences worldwide into the hundreds of millions, racing fans are primed to see if one of (if not ‘the’, by time of the race) the shortest priced Grand National horses ever can claim the win. Cloth Cap, set to be ridden by Tom Scudamore, is just 7/2 with several bookmakers. Confidence from punters comes from an impressive season which includes winning the Ladbrokes Trophy, and with a low weight he’s an obvious choice.

In our embedded Betway video, Katie Walsh (a high achiever in the event in her own right), discusses the challenges that women jockeys faced (and still face!) to gain recognition in the Grand National. With plenty of obstacles in their path (even Ginger McCain said of Carrie Ford, that the race was ‘no place for a woman’ – she finished an impressive 5th) it ‘s been a tough road, but Walsh herself placed 3rd in 2012, drowning out the noise and naysayers. This year at least three women look set to take the reigns in the race. I’ve got my eye on the Paul Nicholl’s trained and Bryony Frost ridden Yala Enki at 40-1. It’s worth a punt for the outsider fans amongst us! Whatever you’re on, enjoy the race!

Not the kind of publicity that racing needs. Despite his Grand National successes, this is very bad form by Gordon Elliot.