Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase Stats & Trends 2025

Date: Wednesday 12th March

Time: 2:00pm

The Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase is the second race on the day two of the Cheltenham Festival.

It has been a useful race to identify potential Gold Cup challengers for the future, with the latest to win both races coming in 2014 when Lord Windermere won the Blue Riband race of the week.

A distance of three miles will be covered on the Old Course in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, with horses aged five and older competing. The useful stats and trends to consider when identifying a potential leading contender can be found here.

The age of the winners in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase could be one the key contenders to consider when assessing the field.

Each of the last four winners of the Grade One have been aged seven, while nine of the victors since 2013 have also been of the same age.

The youngest winning runner in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase since 2013 was Don Poli for the Willie Mullins yard when aged six. Only two eight-year-olds have won the race since 2013- Might Bite (2017) and Champ (2020)

The odds are generally not far wrong when assessing the previous winners of the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

Six of the winners since 2013 have been found at the top of the betting, while there have been nine victors over the same period that have been located in the top three in the market.

A third winning favourite in four years was recorded last year when Fact To File stormed to success at an SP of 8/13. The biggest priced winner of the race since 2015 was The Real Whacker for Patrick Neville at 8/1 in 2023.

Eight of the last 12 winners have travelled to Cheltenham after recording a win on their latest start. Meanwhile, ten of the victors since 2013 have played in the top three on their final effort before the Festival.

Key prep races to consider include the Flogas Novices’ Chase at Leopardstown, which has primed three winners of the Brown Advisory since 2012. Meanwhile, the Dipper Novices’ Chase has also produced two winners of the race at the Festival.

The former is run on the opening day of the Dublin Racing Festival, and was won by Fact To File in 2024. Meanwhile, the Dipper Novices’ Chase was removed from the schedule in 2023-24.

Like many Festival races, previous experience around Cheltenham is a big factor to consider when assessing the contenders in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

All but one of the winners since 2013 have made at least one previous appearance at Cheltenham, with seven winners over that period also having previous winning experience around the track.

That could bode well for last year’s G1 Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle winner Ballyburn, as well as Dancing City, The Jukebox Man, and Better Days Ahead.

Proven performers in graded company have a better strike-rate in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

That is reflected by the fact that nine of the last 12 winners have previous winning experience in graded company.

Among those include Fact To File, who was a Grade One winner performing landing the spoils in the Festival race last year. Nine winners since 2013 have been rated 153 or higher, which includes each of the last eight victors.