Horse Racing - National Hunt Courses - Newbury

One of the UK’s premier tracks, Newbury stages high-quality racing both on the Flat and over jumps and owes its popularity to a combination of factors, notably the very fair, galloping nature of the course, generally excellent ground and its proximity to the major training centre of Lambourn.



Its feature race is the Hennessy Gold Cup, usually run at the end of November, a handicap chase over three and a quarter miles that boasts a roll of honour which includes racing greats Mill House, Arkle, Burrough Hill Lad, One Man, Denman and Bobs Worth. The Saturday is the highlight of a three-day meeting which invariably attracts high-quality fields. The other feature meeting over jumps is the Betfair Hurdle fixture in mid-February, the feature race, a two-mile handicap hurdle, is always one of the big betting races of the winter and sits on a card that includes the Game Spirit Chase and Denman Chase, leading trials for Champion Chase and Gold Cup respectively.

Characteristics

Left handed, galloping with few undulations. One of the fairest courses in the country, though its galloping nature does suit the big, long-striding type. The chase course is regarded as being fairly stiff, though the low casualty rate over recent seasons contradicts such a view; the fact that many races are run at a steady pace possibly contributes to such a low figure, as does the generally better standard of horse on show. Leaders are rarely overhauled on the chase run-in for all it often looks as though they might be, especially from the elbow.

Left handed
Very galloping
Flat
Big Fences

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