Adonis Juvenile Novices' Hurdle

The Adonis Juvenile Novices' Hurdle is a Grade 2 hurdle race run over 2 miles at Kempton Park in late February. As the title implies, the race is restricted to horses aged four years – or, in other words, aged three years at the start of the current season – who, by definition, are racing in their first season under National Hunt rules. Inaugurated, as the Tote Placepot Hurdle, in 1965, the race was elevated to Grade 2 from Listed status in 1991 and renamed to its current title three years later.

Despite the obvious differences between the right-handed, flat hurdles course at Kempton and the New Course at Cheltenham, which is left-handed, undulating and features just two flights of hurdles in the final three-quarters of a mile, the Adonis Juvenile Novices' Hurdle is considered a key trial for the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. The most recent winner of both races was Zarkandar, trained by Paul Nicholls, in 2011. Indeed, more recent winners of the Adonis Juvenile Novices' Hurdle have a less-than-stellar record in the Triumph Hurdle. Since 2011, eight have attempted the double, but none of them has troubled the judge at Cheltenham, despite being well fancied more often than not.

Nicky Henderson, who saddled Katarino (1999), Punjabi (2007), Binocular (2008), Soldatino (2010) and Fusil Raffles (2019), and Alan King, who saddled Trouble at Bay (2004), Penzance (2005), Master Blueyes (2017), Redicean (2018) and Tritonic (2021), are jointly the most successful handlers in the history of the Adonis Juvenile Novices' Hurdle with five winners apiece. Looking ahead to the 2023 renewal of the Adonis Juvenile Novices' Hurdle, scheduled 1:50pm on Saturday, Februrary 25, punters may like to note that seven of the last ten starting price favourites have won.