Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle

Registered as the Spa Novices' Hurdle, but sponsored by 'The Potato People' since 2008, the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle is a Grade 1 hurdle race run over 2 miles, 7 furlongs and 213 yards on the New Course at Cheltenham in March. The race was established, as a Grade 2 contest, in 2005, when the Cheltenham Festival was extended from three to four days, and promoted to Grade 1 status three years later. Previously, the longest race for novice hurdlers at the Chelteham Festival was the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle, a.k.a. the Baring Bingham Novices' Hurdle, over 2 miles and 5 furlongs.

Of course, the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle is restricted to horses, aged four years and upwards, who start the season without a win over hurdles. Consequently, the leading 'bumper' performers from the previous season – who have demonstrated ability, but remain unexposed over obstacles – typically feature highly in the early ante-post lists. The 2023 renewal is scheduled for 2.50pm on Friday, March 17 and the bookmakers currently bet 10/1 the field; American Mike, trained by Gordon Elliott, who finished second in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the 2022 Cheltenham Festival, heads the market.

Obviously, no horse can win the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle more than once, but the most successful winner, subsequently, was Bobs Worth, trained by Nicky Henderson. The stoutly bred son of Bob Back justified favouritism in 2011, but returned to the Cheltenham Festival to win the RSA Chase in 2012 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2013. County Carlow trainer Willie Mullins is the most successful trainer in the history of the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle with three victories, courtesy of Penhill (2017), Monkfish (2020) and The Nice Guy (2022).

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Tottenham Hotspur

Given both clubs are now managed by two of the best coaches in Europe, you would expect both teams to be flying. That is not the case, though, with Tottenham looking a tired side sitting in fourth by the skin of their teeth. Wolves look energetic and aggressive under Julen Lopetegui, but they do have some crucial issues in scoring goals still. Who comes out on top here?

Wolverhampton Wanderers News

For Wolves, sitting 15^th place is a decent position given where the club were when Bruno Lage was sacked. However, they come into this one with a big injury list. The likes of Hwang Hee-Chang, Sasa Kalajdzic, Chiquinho, and now likely Hugo Bueno are all long-term injuries.

Matheus Cunha is likely to miss out, too, removing another attacking option from the Wolves managers arsenal. Wolves are light on numbers, creating a forced consistency in selection that might not benefit them as much as some would assume.

Tottenham Hotspur News

Spurs are missing a few players too, with the midfield duo of Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma out for the season most likely. They will also be missing full-backs in Ryan Sessegnon and Emerson Royal. The latter has been improved in recent weeks, and his energy will be a miss on the right-hand side.

Spurs will also need to make do without Hugo Lloris, who will struggle to come back this season after injury.

Verdict

Both teams are in a tough spot in terms of form, but Spurs do have the firepower of Son Heung-min and Harry Kane to see them through. Having not lost at Molineux in some time, too, Spurs will be confident of getting something from a Wolves team who are just happy not to get relegated after a toxic summer.

SCORE: 1-2

West Ham United v Nottingham Forest

As we move into a key part of the season, more and more teams are beginning to push hard to get results. This has seen teams that might have expected a comfortable season – like West Ham – see a slow start catch up to them. With that in mind, can the Hammers come out the other side of the relegation zone by defeating a Nottingham Forest side that have shown impressive mettle in recent weeks?

West Ham News

Injuries have been a killer for the Irons this year, and the fact they are likely missing the quarter of Maxwel Cornet, Kurt Zouma, Jarrod Bowen and record signing Lucas Paqueta are signs that the injury crisis is not yet over. Manager David Moyes will have seen reports that this is a do-or-die game for his reign, despite the lack of obvious replacements on the market.

This could see West Ham set up in a more defensive, counter-attacking style as they look to play on the youthfulness of Forest.

Nottingham Forest News

The Trent side are going into this game with a massive injury list. Just some of the names who are set to miss out include Omar Richards, Dean Henderson, Willy Boly, Scott McKenna, Taiwo Awoniyi, Serge Aurier, and Moussa Niakhaté. That is a huge number of players to be missing.

Still, they have found some decent form recently and could arrive at the London Stadium keen to make a point after some other less than impressive away results. Forest have stemmed the flow of goals in their games, though, so could be looking to turn this one into a war of attrition.

Verdict

For both teams, not losing would be a decent result. This could see West Ham set out to get a point as opposed to go for all three, which is the nature of Moyes. Forest will come to play, but the sheer volume of players missing could see them play out a rather tough to watch draw with the Irons.

SCORE: 0-0

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.

Champion Hurdle Trial

The Champion Hurdle Trial is a Grade 2 hurdle race run over 1 mile, 7 furlongs and 144 yards at Haydock Park in January. Open to horses aged four years and upwards, the race was inaugurated in 1981, but was elevated to Grade 2 status in 1992. Since 2018, the Champion Hurdle Trial has been sponsored by online gambling company Unibet and, since 2019, has been run as The New One Unibet Hurdle in honour of the horse that won four consecutuve renewals in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Nowadays, the Champion Hurdle Trial is the penultimate leg in a season-long series of six races sponsored by Unibet and hence known as the 'Unibet Road to Cheltenham'. The series starts with the Elite Hurdle, run at Wincanton in November, and culminates with the Champion Hurdle itself, run at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

The New One aside, Nigel Twiston-Davies also saddled Mistinguett (1997) and Ballyandy (2020) to victory in the Champion Hurdle Trial and is the leading trainer in the history of the race with six winners. Other notable winners of the race include Granville Again (1992), Flakey Dove (1994) and Rooster Booster (2004), all of whom won the Champion Hurdle – although only the second-named did so in the same year as her victory at Haydock Park – together with three-time Stayers' Hurdle winner Inglis Drever (2005) and three-time Aintree Hurdle winner Al Eile (2006).

If recent seasons are anything to go by, the likes of Constitution Hill, Honeysuckle and State Man, who currently head the ante-post betting market for the Champion Hurdle are unlikely to run at Haydock. Nevertheless, recent trends suggest that a likely winner of the Champion Hurdle Trial will be aged 7 years and upwards, rated 150, or higher, and possess recent, preferably winning, form.