Albert Bartlett Spa Novices’ Hurdle – Gold Cup Day

The Spa Novices’ Hurdle is more commonly known by racing fans by its sponsored name, the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, and quite affectionately by some, known as the potato race.

A real test for novice hurdlers, the trip of three miles takes some getting used to, and horses that win this are always dour stayers of the future, either over hurdles or fences.

Created in 2005, this is a race that was made specifically for the expansion from three days to four days at the meeting, and the need for a longer distance novice hurdle was there. It was run as a Grade Two contest for the first three years before moving up to Grade One in the same season that Albert Bartlett began sponsoring the race.

A really gruelling test, but also a race that has produced some quality winners over the years.

Sitting directly before the Cheltenham Gold Cup on the schedule, this race does have the unfair position of being the warm-up act for the biggest race of the week. But don’t let that fool you, this is a high-quality contest in its own right.

Race Facts

At the start of Day Three the races shift from the Old Course onto the New, so this race is like all other on Day Four in that it is run left-handed on the New Course. It lasts for three miles and there are twelve hurdles to be jumped during its running.

Open to five-year-old novices and older, there’s a weight restriction of eleven stone seven pound, whilst fillies and mares get an allowance of seven pounds.

Previous Winners

Race Trivia

The fact that this race is for novices means that horses cannot enter it if they’ve won a race prior to the start of that season. Consequently that excludes horses from being able to win this race more than once. Obviously the same is not true for either jockeys or trainers, though the short life of the race so far means that only four jockeys have won it more than once.

Robert Thornton won the race’s inaugural running in 2005 on the back of Moulin Riche before taking Nenuphar Collonges to victory in 2008. Harry Cobden has also won this twice (2018 & 2023). It is Tony McCoy who holds the joint-record for wins as a jockey. He managed back-to-back victories in 2006 and 2007 before getting one final victory with At Fishers Cross in 2013.  Paul Townend then matched that with wins for Willie Mullins in 2017, 2020 and 2025.

When it comes to trainers, things are a lot simpler to explain. Only two trainers have won it more than once at the time of writing, with that honour failing to Jonjo O’Neill (2) and Willie Mullings (4). Interestingly for O’Neill those two wins came in successive years thanks to Tony McCoy, with 2006’s Black Jack Ketchum and 2007’s Wichita Lineman both trained by O’Neill.

There is a family connection in the race, however, with Willie Mullins winning in 2017 thanks to Penhill, two years after his sister-in-law Margaret Mullins has trained Martello Tower to the number on spot.  He won it again in 2020 with Monkfish, in 2022 with The Nice Guy and in 2025 with Jasmin De Vaux.

Star Winners of the Spa Novices’ Hurdle

There have been three standout winners of this race, who have all gone on to win a Grade One championship race at the Cheltenham Festival after landing this prize, and one of them went on to land something very special indeed.

Bobs Worth was the standout winner. He would claim this race during his novice hurdling career, and that was the start of a historic Cheltenham run. A year later, he would go chasing and win the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, known at the time as the RSA Chase, and the premium staying chase for novices.

But that wasn’t it for Bobs Worth, who would come back to the festival a year later, and land the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the first of two horses to win this race, and land the Gold Cup later in their careers.

In doing this, Bobs Worth became the first horse since the 1960s to record three consecutive wins at the Cheltenham Festival in three different races.

The other horse to win this race and then land the Gold Cup was the Henry de Bromhead-trained Minella Indo. He would land this contest in 2019, and do so at big odds, returned a 50/1 winner of this race. Two years later, back at the festival, he would land the 2021 Gold Cup.

Finally, away from fences and sticking to hurdles, Penhill landed the 2017 edition of this race, and then a year later, remained over hurdles and won the Grade One Stayers Hurdle to complete a nice hurdling double in two staying events.