Following on from the changes to the 2025 Cheltenham Festival last week, the course has announced more, and these are the final ones we will see.
It’s a radical move, one that will attract strong views on both sides of the argument, but whatever your feelings are, the positive is that we know exactly what the festival will look like in March.
Alongside the Turners Novice Chase and Cross Country Chase becoming a handicap, four further changes have been made to the schedule.
National Hunt Chase Faces Radical Change
The National Hunt Chase is the oldest race of the Festival, and it is going to see a huge change. And it’s a change that I am really opposed to. I think others will be, too.
The race will now be run as a novice handicap, which I’m not too worried about, but the big negative for me is that it will no longer be confined to amateur riders only. That means professionals will be able to take rides.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask to keep this race for amateurs, giving them a race where they can shine, one of their opportunities has been taken away and given to riders that are already incredibly busy with everything else going off.
In terms of the overall look, it means we now have two novice chases, over 2m4f and 3m6f. This bit I can understand, and don’t mind it, but that shouldn’t mean the amateurs lose a race.
This is a change driven by the field size, over the last three years, it has averaged less than eight runners. However, the field size and rider status shouldn’t be linked, changing to a handicap should be enough to increase the field.
No Penalties in Mares Novices’ Hurdle
The Mares Novices’ Hurdle is the second race looked at, a minor change designed to help the better runners in this race and one that shouldn’t make too much difference to the field size.
Winners of races in the build-up to the Festival will no longer receive a penalty for their success in this race.
Essentially, that makes this a Grade One contest in terms of race rules and penalties, though it is still firmly a Grade Two in name and nature and likely to attract the same level of participants.
Experience Upped in Non-Novice Handicap Races
The following change is one that I fully understand, but at the same time, I don’t like it. The number of races to qualify for non-handicaps at the Festival has increased from three to four over hurdles and four to five over fences.
I can definitely see why this has been done, it forces horses to run more, rather than wait for the Festival, and ensures, especially over fences, that horses have the right amount of experience to be placed in a big field handicap.
However, as a punter, I love nothing more than scouring the fields to find runners that have just sneaked in, with the minimum number of rules, and could be well ahead of the handicapper.
The chances of being able to do that are now a little slimmer than they were in the past, and it takes away an angle that I know a lot of people use.
Pertemps Qualifying Winners Guaranteed a Run
Finally, the Pertemps handicap is not everyone’s cup of tea due to its usual impossible nature, but there’s been a change made here regarding the qualifying races.
If a horse wins a qualifier, they’re guaranteed a run if they are within the handicap when the declarations come out.
While I don’t see too much changing at the Festival itself, this should at lease make the qualifiers a little more interesting. For years, we’ve seen trainers try to avoid winning while still qualifying in order to preserve a handicap mark.
A Positive or Negative to the 2025 Cheltenham Festival?
One thing you cannot accuse Cheltenham of with these changes is being safe and not radical.
They’ve made a handful of changes, some very big, and it’s all been done based on feedback from professionals and racegoers.
I think they’ve divide opinion, no one will be in agreement with anything they’ve done, and I’m certainly not.
But at the same time, we’ve seen the Cheltenham Festival lose its spark in recent years, so I am all for trying to brighten things back up and, as one famous person once said, make the Festival great again.