Dan Skelton’s The New Lion and the Willie Mullins-trained Final Demand are two of the star names featuring amongst a list of 11 horses declared for the 2025 Turners Novices’ Hurdle, which takes place at the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday 12th March. The second day curtain-raiser is one of the standout Grade 1 races of the week for the novice hurdlers and there’s a quality field set to do battle in the 2m 5f contest.
Unbeaten in four career starts, The New Lion has been the star novice on British soil this season as having won impressively on hurdling debut at Chepstow he then went and claimed a brace of Newbury races including the Grade 1 Challow Novices’ Hurdle. In the aftermath of that Challow romp, The New Lion was subsequently purchased by JP McManus and the hugely talented six-year-old will now take his chance on Wednesday in the world famous green and gold silks.
A facile 15-length winner on debut at Limerick back at the end of December, Final Demand threw his hat into the Cheltenham Festival ring when bounding to a 12-length victory over Wingmen in a Grade 1 contest at Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival. The Mullins-trained star produced a sumptuous performance that day and was instantly touted as one of the leading staying novice hurdlers for the Closutton team. He’s been thrown up as either a Turners or Albert Bartlett contender, but should he be sent to this contest then he will be a huge player.
Champion Hurdle Runners 2025 – Lossiemouth Defects as Seven Declared for Tuesday Highlight
Six horses remain in the 2025 Champion Hurdle as one of the four big names expected to run for much of the build-up in Lossiemouth was not declared, and will instead run in the Mares’ Hurdle 40 minutes earlier. The showpiece contest on day one of the Cheltenham Festival is due off at 4pm on…
Sun 09 Mar 2025Gordon Elliott’s The Yellow Clay is another with a perfect record over timber and with four wins out of four he’s one that has to be respected, wherever he lines. A real solid stayer, he is prominent in both the Turners Novices’ Hurdle Odds and Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle Odds, so is certainly one to keep an eye on until final declarations.
Flying the flag for the British alongside The New Lion is Potters Charm for Nigel Twiston-Davies. A Grade 2 winner at Cheltenham earlier in the season, he tasted Grade 1 victory in the Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree over the Christmas period, but defeat last time out has seen him ease in the betting for this contest.
Sixmilebridge, who beat Potters Charm last time out at Cheltenham, but subsequently gave a positive test is another one entered here, while Kiss Will and Kel Histoire are another brace of runners worthy of a mention.
Turners Novices’ Hurdle 2025 Runners
| Number | Horse | Trainer |
| 1 | Final Demand | Willie Mullins |
| 2 | Forty Coats | Henry De Bromhead |
| 3 | Kaid d’Authie | Willie Mullins |
| 4 | Kappa Jy Pyke | Willie Mullins |
| 5 | Kel Histoire | Willie Mullins |
| 6 | Kiss Will | Willie Mullins |
| 7 | Potters Charm | Nigel Twiston-Davies |
| 8 | Sixmilebridge | Fergal O’Brien |
| 9 | Supersundae | Willie Mullins |
| 10 | The New Lion | Dan Skelton |
| 11 | The Yellow Clay | Gordon Elliott |