Premier Handicap Races at Cheltenham

The British Horseracing Authority made a decision in 2022 to change Grade 3 races into Premier Handicaps. It means that the third-level of races beneath Grade 1 and Grade 2 offerings will be Premier Handicaps moving forward.

The change came into effect on the first of October that year, with the newly named races carrying the same Black Type status as the Grade 3 events had. The grading process as a whole was first introduced in 1964, with Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 races amongst the best types of races in the horse racing industry.

The change to become Premier Handicaps doesn’t alter anything on that front. Whilst they are beneath Grade 1 and Grade 2 races in one sense, that doesn’t meant that they are less worth watching than the more prestigious events. The Grand National is likely to be making the jump to become a Premier Handicap race, for example, and few people would say that the ‘World’s Greatest Steeplechase’ isn’t as important or as prestigious as events that run under the Graded banner.

There might be a feeling in some quarters that this is a big change, but in truth it really isn’t.

Premier Handicap Races At The Cheltenham Festival

Premier Handicap Races At Other Cheltenham Meetings

Premier Handicap Races Explained

Races that would previously be in the ‘Graded’ category, including Grade 3, are the races that are most watched around the world. The only real different between the races we’re talking about here and the same races when they were Grade 3 offerings is that they will all be run under handicap rules from now on.

There has always been only a slight difference between the three Grades and that remains the case under the new ruling. Whilst Grade 1 events are often weight-for-age offerings, Grade 2 races are similar but with a lower quality.

Premier Handicap events will see every horse in the race given a weight to carry, depending on their Official Rating. This ensures that the races are filled with excitement, theoretically because the horses could all finish first if the handicapper has done their job correctly. That never happens, of course, but it could in theory.

It is not as if there are any specific rules about what type of horses can take part in Premier Handicap events, with each race having its own rules that will be adhered to moving forwards. How long they are, how many jumps they feature and so on will be judged case-by-case.

Why Have The Rules Changed?

The obvious question that most people will be asking is why, exactly, the rules have changed. It is not an easy answer to give, although there was something enlightening about the matter from the British Horseracing Authority.

The feeling was that the term ‘Grade 3’ was confusing for customers of horse racing as a sport. It wasn’t clear what the role was that such races played in the overall framework of the Pattern, meaning that some felt as though a re-brand might help to make things a little bit clearer for punters.

The hope is that giving the race type a new name, it will be significantly clearer that these are ‘Britain’s principal Jump handicaps’, which will give racing fans a ‘clearer, more logical signposting’. In other words, the fact that the races were previously known as ‘Grade 3’ options meant that a lot of people thought that they weren’t very good races.

As a result, adding the word ‘Premier’ into their title is seen as a good way of letting people know that they are exceptional, high-quality races that are a crucial part of the horse racing calendar.

What The New Grading Means

The new title of the races means very little in the grand scheme of things. This is a re-branding, rather than some sort of over-arching alteration of the very core of jump racing. That being said, the BHA is introducing changes that will affect more than just Grade 3 races. There has also been a decision to abandon the term ‘Listed’ for handicaps altogether, with races that have previously come under that category now either being promoted or else downgraded.

Listed handicap races that are good enough will become either Grade 2 or Premier Handicap events, whilst those that aren’t will drop down to Class 2.

At Cheltenham, an example of this comes in the form of the E.B.F. Mares’ Final Handicap Novices’ Chase. That is being upgraded to become a Grade 2 offering, though it will retain its limited weight-range moving forwards.

Another Listed race that is run at Cheltenham Racecourse is the Regulatory Finance Solutions Hurdle, which will be downgraded to Class 2, with the same thing applying to the Mares’ Handicap Hurdle. Similarly, a number of Pattern races will be downgraded as part of the same review, though none from Cheltenham.

You Don’t Need To Worry

In truth, most people who watch horse racing won’t even notice that there has been a change. The races themselves will still be run in the same manner, with the handicappers applying their rules to the horses when deciding how much weight they’ll have to carry for a race.

The races will still be the same length that they were before, involve the same number of horses and the same number of jumps. Any changes to any of those factors will be made entirely separately and will not be because of the change of name to Premier Handicap.

It also won’t make any difference to how bookmakers price up the horses or how your betting works. Indeed, the best way to think about the change is as a cosmetic one, in which the name has changed but all of the other information to do with the race is the same.

There is no suggestion from the British Horseracing Authority that there will be any material changes to the way in which the races work, so unless you’ve always paid attention to what Grade a jump race was in, you almost certainly wouldn’t even know this has happened.

Big Grade 3 and Premier Handicap Races

The best thing to do in order to help you understand the manner in which Premier Handicap (former Grade 3) races can vary wildly from each other is to have a look at some specific examples.

Here we’ll take a look at the Grand National as well as the Premier Handicaps that are run at Cheltenham during the course of the National Hunt season.