Key changes have been made ahead of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, with both the Turners Novices’ Chase and the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase. Both are to become handicaps, with the former doing so for the first time since being introduced as a Grade 1 back in 2011, and the latter reverting to the format it held until 2015.
This is a significant move by Cheltenham, with these changes announced in advance of the National Hunt season in earnest. However, given the Jockey Club announced a review would be conducted into the future of the Cheltenham Festival back in April, there is feeling around that further announcements are likely for extra revamping of the event.
The Turners Novices’ Chase will now effectively revert to the novices’ handicap chase run until 2020 and won by the likes of Hunt Ball and 2022 Gold Cup hero A Plus Tard. It should also help to serve both of the existing Grade 1 novice chases, the Arkle and the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, and hopefully boost the fields in both. 27 horses ran across the three Grade 1 novice chases last season, an average of nine a race, though that average should hopefully increase with only two options available for top class horses.
Meanwhile, the Cross Country Chase, which has seen a vast increase in the quality of horse contesting the race in recent times, including two-time Grand National winner Tiger Roll and former Gold Cup winners and favourites Delta Work, Galvin and Minella Indo. However, the reversion to its handicap nature should encourage such horses to continue running at a higher level and give staying handicappers and cross country specialists more of a home at the big meeting.
These are the first changes since the 2021 Cheltenham Festival when the novices’ handicap chase was replaced by the Grade 2 Mares’ Chase, run on the final day of the Festival. No word has been given on the future of that newer contest as yet, nor the remainder of the schedule.