Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Betting Tips – Expert Predictions

The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle is for four-year-olds new to the National Hunt scene. With the least form on offer, it can be the hardest race to solve, but with GG’s expert analysis and tips, we hope to give punters the best chance of finding the winner.

Andrew Mount’s Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Tips

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Matty Sutcliffe’s Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Tips

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Dave Young’s Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Tips

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Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Bookmaker Odds – Race 6, Tuesday 11th March 4:50

We barely know any juvenile hurdlers who will be racing throughout the 2024/25 National Hunt season as yet, so we do not know how the field for this race will shape up. Last season’s card is shown below, highlighting the winner, Lark In The Mornin.


All About The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle in 2025

There is a chance that the winner of the 2025 Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle has not even run over hurdles yet. With the race being limited to four-year-olds, for whom this must be their first season in National Hunt racing, the current crop will have raced very few times.

Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Overlooked Outsiders

This race is often one of the most open at the Festival, with so many unknowns involved. As such, there will likely be a number of overlooked outsiders once the field is declared days before the off.


A race exclusively for the youngest horses in National Hunt racing, the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle is into its 20th running this year. 

Less than a third of the winners of the contest have gone off at single-figure odds so this is often a race to find some value. Even then, only three of those six were the favourite, with Band Of Outlaws the only market leader to oblige within the last decade.

Moreover, looking at the prices of those who were greater than 9/1, many of them are much bigger. In chronological order, such winners went off at 20/1, 40/1, 14/1, 11/1, 40/1, 25/1, 33/1, 25/1, 33/1, 33/1 & 80/1, and 18/1, with Jazzy Matty the latest winner of the race. It’s not as if quietly fancied horses are winning at shorter odds; these are fundamentally outsiders, some of them rank outsiders.

Yet that doesn’t mean you should ignore the big stables. Among those to have trained those unlikely winners are Paul Nicholls (Qualando, 25/1), Nicky Henderson (Une Artiste, 40/1) and Gordon Elliott (Jazzy Matty, 18/1, Flaxen Flare, 25/1 & Veneer Of Charm, 33/1), with Noel Meade having prepared Jeff Kidder in 2021 at 80/1.

Perhaps it’s a case of the stellar yards keeping one back and with so little experience throughout the field, it should be no surprise that shocks happen on a regular basis. Either we simply haven’t seen the best of some of the four-year-olds in the field, or one or two have improved beyond measure since their previous start. It is far likelier to happen in this race than any other.

However, the best statistic is saved for last. There have been 20 runnings of the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle and 18 different jockeys have won it. Mark Walsh became the first jockey to have won two renewals in 2022 with Brazil, having previously steered Aramax to victory in 2020. JJ Slevin joined him with victory in 2024.

Mark Walsh became the only jockey to ride more than one Boodles winner when steering Brazil to victory in 2022.

2024 Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Prize Money

Exactly £80,000 was dished out between connections of the first eight finishers in March 2024. Lark In The Mornin’s connections took home just over £45,000 of that.

The prize pot for the 2025 renewal is also set to be £80,000.


Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle History

Introduced in 2005, the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle has given the juvenile hurdlers shy of Triumph Hurdle class a chance to win a significant prize at the greatest jumps Festival.

With inexperience to the fore, it is often the case that the horses who go on to achieve most may not have won this race. Of the previous winners, Sanctuaire may be the standout name, for all he is possibly best known for being eaten alive by Sprinter Sacre in the 2012 Tingle Creek. He was a two-time Grade 2 winner over fences though.

However, it is among the recently vanquished that we find Nube Negra. Dan Skelton’s now brilliant chaser was favourite for the race in 2018, but could finish only third to Veneer Of Charm. Just three years later and we know exactly who he is now.

The race’s greatest claim to fame is probably due to Gaspara’s feat in 2007. As with The Shunter doubling up at Kelso and Cheltenham in March to win a £100,000 bonus, David Pipe’s juvenile filly managed the same thing, arguably more impressively.

She rode the crest of a wave having joined Pipe from France, winning her first two novice hurdles before taking the Imperial Cup at Sandown. Three days later, she showed up in this race with a mere 4lb penalty and won impressively. Her bonus for connections was £75,000 and just as well: she never won again.

Maybe, the best winner was saved until 2021. Jeff Kidder may have been 80/1, but he’d step up to Graded company on his next two starts, winning at the highest level in Punchestown’s Champion Four Year Old Hurdle. 

Jeff Kidder caused a big shock when running out an 80/1 winner of this race in 2021.

Winners since 2005

YearHorseJockey/TrainerOdds
2005DabirounJ:Nina Carberry
T:Paul Nolan
20/1
2006ShamayounJ:Paddy Brennan
T:Charles Egerton
40/1
2007Gaspara J:Andrew Glassonbury
T:David Pipe
9/2J
2008Crack Away JackJ:Paul Carberry
T:Emma Lavelle
14/1
2009Silk AffairJ:Tom O’Brien
T:Mick Quinlan
11/1
2010SanctuaireJ:Ruby Walsh
T:Paul Nicholls
4/1F
2011What A CharmJ:Paul Townend
T:Arthur Moore
9/1
2012Une ArtisteJ:Jerry McGrath
T:Nicky Henderson
40/1
2013Flaxen FlareJ:Davy Condon
T:Gordon Elliott
25/1
2014Hawk HighJ:Brian Hughes
T:Tim Easterby
33/1
2015QualandoJ:Nick Schofield
T:Paul Nicholls
25/1
2016Diego Du Charmil J:Sam Twiston-Davies
T:Paul Nicholls
13/2
2017Flying TigerJ:Richard Johnson
T:
Nick Williams
33/1
2018Veneer Of CharmJ:Jack Kennedy
T:Gordon Elliott
33/1
2019Band Of OutlawsJ:J J Slevin
T:
Joseph O’Brien
7/2F
2020AramaxJ:Mark Walsh
T:Gordon Elliott
15/2
2021Jeff KidderJ:Sean Flanagan
T:
Noel Meade
80/1
2022BrazilJ:Mark Walsh
T:Padraig Roche
10/1
2023Jazzy MattyJ:Michael O’Sullivan (3)
T:Gordon Elliott
18/1
2024Lark In The MorninJ:J J Slevin
T:
Joseph O’Brien
9/1

Cheltenham Festival Racing Schedule

TimeRaceTips
1:30Supreme Novices’ HurdleRead Tip
2:10Sporting Life Arkle ChallengeRead Tip
2:50Ultima Handicap Steeple ChaseRead Tip
3:30Unibet Champion Hurdle ChallengeRead Tip
4:10Close Brothers Mares’ HurdleRead Tip
4:50Boodles Juvenile HandicapRead Tip
5:30National Hunt Challenge ChaseRead Tip