Newbury racecourse counts down to a new-look start to its jumps season
As Jump racing gets into full swing, there's less than four weeks until Newbury Racecourse's 2016/17 season starts with a new fixture on Thursday, November 3: the bet365 Festival Preview meeting.
Newbury has always started its jump season on the last weekend of November with the three-day festival - recently sponsored as the bet365 Festival - that includes on the last day the ever-popular Hennessy Gold Cup. This new meeting will feature a seven-race card worth over £75,000 in prize money with the premier attraction of the Whitley Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle, run over two miles for £20,000.
The card will also feature the KKA-Highpoint Beginners' Chase over two miles six and a half furlongs, a potential springboard to the prestigious Grade Two bet365 Novices' Chase at the bet365 Festival three weeks later.
The bet365 Festival - widely known as the Hennessy meeting - has been reduced to two days - Friday and Saturday, November 25 and 26. Over £600,000 in prize money will be on offer and the sixtieth running of the Grade Three Hennessy Gold Cup on Saturday, November 26, will be the highlight. a
The feature race on Friday, November 25 is now the £50,000 Grade Two bet365 Long Distance Hurdle over three miles, won last year by Thistlecrack, who became the seventh winner of this race in the last 11 years to go on to victory in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham. This race sits alongside the £50,000 bet365 Handicap Chase over two miles and four furlongs on a card worth £190,000.
Hennessy Gold Cup Day on Saturday, November 26 now includes the Grade Two bet365 Novices' Chase over almost three miles and the Listed bet365 Intermediate Hurdle over two miles and half a furlong.
Andy Clifton, Head of Communications at Newbury Racecourse, says the Newbury team are said very excited about the new-look start to their Jump season: "It will be great to start Jump racing here earlier on November 3 and I hope that some of the horses in action on that day will return three weeks later."
"At the end of November, all roads lead to the bet365 Festival featuring the 60th Hennessy Gold Cup, worth £200,000."
"No race is worth more than this historic contest until the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham the following March and with a top-class supporting card on the Friday...the bet365 Festival looks as strong a two-day Jump racing meeting as you will find outside the spring festivals."
