Contents
  1. Race Conditions

The Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle has been around as a contest at the Cheltenham Festival for over 40 years.

The race was originally contested back in 1971, but was run under the name of the Aldsworth Hurdle.

From 1974 onwards the insurance firm Royal and Sun Alliance were the sponsors of the race and it was run under the title of The Sun Alliance Novices Hurdle.

A company by the name of Ballymore Properties took up sponsorship of the race for a three year period between 2006 – 2009. For the past three renewals and from 2010 onwards,Neptune Investment Management have sponsored the race. This is why you may see the race abbreviated to the NIM Novices’ Hurdle.

For those of you who are interested, the official title of the race by the powers that be at Cheltenham is The Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle.

Race Conditions

  • The Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle is classified as a class 1, grade 1 hurdling race for novice horses.
  • The race will be contested at a start time of 14:05 on day two of the Cheltenham Festival.
  • The race is open to horses aged four years old and above.
  • The race is run over 2 miles and 5 furlongs.
  • There are ten hurdles for entrants to negoatiate
  • The purse in 2012 was circa £98k, with first place winning circa £57k

Galloping Hurdlers at the Cheltenham Festival

Runners in the 2011 NIM Novices Hurdle