Cheltenham’s running order has also been tweaked with Ruby Walsh and Paul Nicholls showing their support
A little over a year since Cheltenham announced that a mares’ chase would be added to its Festival schedule from next March, the new contest will replace the meeting’s two-and-a-half novice handicap chase, while the running order over the four days has also been tweaked, to put the new race on the final afternoon’s card alongside the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The novice handicap chase, run for the final time seven months ago on the Festival’s opening day, was one of four races believed to be under consideration for the axe to make way for the Mares’ Chase, along with the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (still better known, perhaps, as the Fred Winter), the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase for amateur riders and the Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle, for conditionals.