Newbury Racecourse: All eyes on the Betfair Hurdle - perhaps it will be Snake Eyes' year
Sasha Thorbeck-Hooper (pictured right in the Newbury parade ring) looks ahead to Newbury's Betfair Super Saturday on 7 February 2015 - and to the much-anticipated Betfair Hurdle.
The Betfair Hurdle is a Grade Three handicap race run at Newbury over two miles and half-a-furlong for horses aged four years or more. It's a key part of one of the highlights of the Jump season: Betfair Super Saturday which regularly showcases some of racing’s biggest names alongside the stars of the future.
The £155,000 Betfair Hurdle, now the richest race of its type in the UK, boasts a prestigious roll of honour dating back to 1963.
Newbury’s ‘Super Saturday’ also features the Grade 2 Betfair Denman Chase, a notable trial for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Past winners of that race include steeplechasing legends Kauto Star and Denman who both went on from Newbury to win the sport’s flagship race five weeks later.
Reigning Champion Chaser Sire de Grugy is no stranger to Festival success, and his intended return from injury in the Grade 2 Betfair Price Rush Steeple Chase (registered as the Game Spirit) will bring significant added interest to an already stellar card.
The Betfair Hurdle is widely regarded as one of the most fiercely-contested handicap hurdles of the whole calendar and can often throw up a future Champion Hurdle prospect. However, only two horses have managed to win this Newbury race and go on to Cheltenham and win the two mile Tuesday showpiece - always a popular start to the Festival.
Nicky Henderson has won the Betfair Hurdle five times - and has five entries this year - including the much-favoured Snake Eyes.
And watch out for Venetia Williams' AsoPersian War was the first to achieve the feat in the 1960's. Then Martin Pipe's Make A Stand won this contest in 1997 and went on to Prestbury Park a month later to lift the Champion Hurdle crown.
Geos won this race on two separate occasions in 2000 and 2004 for his trainer Nicky Henderson, who has incidentally got a decent record in this contest having notched up four winners since 1998.
The event was established in 1963, and the inaugural running took place at Aintree. The race was originally sponsored by Schweppes, and it was known as the Schweppes Gold Trophy. This sponsorship continued until 1986 when it was taken over by Tote Bookmakers (later known as 'totesport)'.
The race was called the Tote Gold Trophy from 1987 to 2004, and the totesport Trophy from 2005 to 2011. Since 2012 the race has been sponsored by Betfair and known as the Betfair Hurdle.
Recent Winners of Betfair Hurdle:
• 2000 - Geos
• 2001 - Landing Light
• 2002 - Copeland
• 2003 - Spirit Leader
• 2004 - Geos
• 2005 - Essex
• 2006 - No Race
• 2007 - Heathcote
• 2008 - Wingman
• 2009 - No Race
• 2010 - Get Me Out Of Here
• 2011 - Recession Proof
• 2012 - Zarkandar
• 2013 - My Tent Or Yours
• 2014 - Splash Of Ginge
As Newbury Racecourse’s ‘Owners and Trainers Representative’ I will be looking forward to welcoming many of National Hunt’s most influential and prominent owners to Newbury for Super Saturday, who will all be there chasing the dream…. "The great joy of jump racing is that everyone with whom you rub shoulders in the stands in a bitter November rain is a true believer." (Former Foreign Secretary, the late Robin Cook.)