Ascot November Racing Weekend: Race List & Meeting Info
The United Kingdom is certainly well catered for when it comes to both the variety and quality of racecourses on offer, with top class venues across almost the length and breadth of the nation. The pick of the bunch though very well might be the beautiful Berkshire venue of Ascot. Most famous for one of the most spectacular flat racing festivals held anywhere in the world, the track also knows how to lay on a quality National Hunt event, and hits its stride relatively early in the season with this late Autumn cracker.
Themed around the pleasure to be found in owning a racehorse, we have 13 contests on offer over the Friday and Saturday of this meeting, with the Saturday in particular being an opportunity to see some of the real stars of the game in action.
Day One Races - Friday
| Race | Grade | Length | Prize Money | Ages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascot Novices' Chase | Class 3 | 2m3f | £16,800 | 4 Years Old + |
| Zeelo Maiden Hurdle | Class 3 | 2m3½f | £10,400 | 4 Years Old + |
| Kim Bailey Introductory Hurdle | Class 2 | 1m7½f | £20,000 | 4 Years Old + |
| Creativevents Handicap Chase | Class 2 | 2m5f | £35,000 | 4 Years Old + |
| Berkshire Handicap Chase | Class 3 | 3m | £26,800 | 4 Years Old + |
| Ascot Handicap Hurdle | Class 2 | 1m7½f | £30,000 | 4 Years Old + |
Ascot Novices' Chase
Class 3, 2m3f
At the time of writing this race is sponsored by Sky Sports Racing, though it’s registered at the Ascot Novices’ Chase so you’ll know which race it is. Open to horses aged four and over, this steeplechase takes place over two miles, two furlongs and one hundred and seventy-five yards.
There are sixteen fences for participating horses to get over in this Class 3 offering. If the Going is Soft then it will tend to last about four minutes and forty seconds, give or take. At the end of the run the winning novice chase can expect to take home about £10,000.
Zeelo Maiden Hurdle
Class 3, 2m3½f
Run in association with the National Hunt, this is a race for maiden hurdlers. It takes place over two miles, three furlongs and fifty-eight yards and during the running there are ten hurdles. Open to horses aged four and over for whom the event is a maiden one, the prize money sits at around £6,700.
Kim Bailey Introductory Hurdle
Class 2, 1m7½f
Sponsored by Kim Bailey Racing, this Class 2 event is run over one mile, seven furlongs and one hundred and fifty-two yards. With prize money of just shy of £13,000, the horses taking part need to be aged four or over and will have to jump eight hurdles if they’re hoping to win the race.
Creativevents Handicap Chase
Class 2, 2m5f
Horses in this race need to be aged four or over and have a rating of between 0 and 145. The Class 2 event is run over two miles, five furlongs and eight yards, boasting seventeen fences during that. If the Going is Soft then it will take about five and a half minutes for this steeplechase to be run.
Berkshire Handicap Chase
Class 3, 3m
Run over two miles, seven furlongs and one hundred and eighty yards, this steeplechase is a handicap offering. It is open to horses aged four and over, with a rating of between 0 and 140. The handicapper will then assign appropriate weights and the horses will need to jump twenty fences before the run-in of this Class 3 event.
Ascot Handicap Hurdle
Class 2, 1m7½f
Currently run thanks to the Racehorse Ownership Association, the Ascot Handicap Hurdle is a Class 2 event for horses aged 4 and over with a rating of between 0 and 145. The prize money sits just shy of £19,000 for this hurdling event, which is run over one mile, seven furlongs and one hundred and fifty-two yards and involves eight jumps.
Day Two Races - Saturday
| Race | Grade | Length | Prize Money | Ages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Molton Brown Novices' Hurdle | Class 2 | 2m5½f | £20,000 | 4 Years Old + |
| Ascot Chase | Class 3 | 3m | £13,800 | 4 Years Old + |
| Trisoft Mares' Handicap Hurdle | Class 3 | 2m7½f | £11,800 | 4 Years Old + |
| Christy 1965 Chase | Grade 2 | 2m5f | £70,000 | 4 Years Old + |
| Coral Hurdle | Grade 2 | 2m3½f | £100,000 | 4 Years Old + |
| Gerard Bertrand Hurst Park Handicap | Class 2 | 2m1f | £125,000 | 4 Years Old + |
| Ascot Standard Open NH Flat Race | Class 4 | 1m7½f | £7,000 | 4 Years Old + |
Molton Brown Novices' Hurdle
Class 2, 2m5½f
The opening race of the second day of Ascot’s November Racing Weekend is a hurdling event for novices. Sponsored by Molton Brown at the time of writing, it takes place over two miles, five furlongs and one hundred and forty-one yards and ask the horses to jump over ten hurdles. The race is for horses aged four and over.
Ascot Chase
Class 3, 3m
Run in association with Horse Racing Ireland, this Limited Handicap is for novice chasers aged four and over. They’ll need to have a rating of between 0 and 135 to take part, chasing a prize that is just over £8,000. Run over two miles, seven furlongs and one hundred and eighty yards, there are twenty fences to jump in this steeplechase.
Trisoft Mares' Handicap Hurdle
Class 3, 2m7½f
Limited to mares aged four and over with a rating of between 0 and 130, this handicap hurdle is sponsored by Trisoft at present. It takes place over two miles, seven furlongs and one hundred and eighteen yards and there are eleven hurdles to be jumped. The prize money is about £6,700 and if the Going so Soft then it will take about six minutes and ten seconds to complete the race.
Christy 1965 Chase
Grade 2, 2m5f
This race might only be young, having been inaugurated in 2006, but it’s already been taken to the heart of the National Hunt community. The Grade 2 offering is run right-handed over two miles, five furlongs and eight yards. It is open to horses aged four and up with the following weight information at play:
- 4-year-olds: 10 stone 7 pounds
- 5-year-olds and over: 11 stone 1 pound
- Fillies and mares receive a 7 pound allowance
The race features seventeen fences that must be negotiated. It is named in honour of the year that jump racing first took place at Ascot, 1965, and was a limited handicap when it was created in 2006. In 2009 it switched to become a conditions race and before 2015 it was run over two miles and three furlongs.
A race similar to this known as the First National Gold Cup, which was a limited handicap offering run over two miles and four furlongs, took place between 1994 and 2004. It was restricted to horses that were either in their first season or their second season of steeple chase racing.
Coral Hurdle
Grade 2, 2m3½f
Registered as the Ascot Hurdle but known as the Coral Hurdle because of sponsorship, this Grade 2 race is open to horses aged four and over. It is run over a distance of around two miles, three furlongs and fifty-eight yards and features ten hurdles.
A number of horses have won the race more than once, including Gaye Brief, Morley Street and Muse. In terms of what the race can be useful for in a learning sense, the answer is some of the biggest future jumps races. Take Annie Power, for example, who won the Ascot Hurdle in 2013 and then went on to win the Champion Hurdle and Aintree Hurdle two years later.
In similar fashion there’s Baracouda, whose 2001 and 2002 wins were a prelude to winning the World Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury. Dawn Run, meanwhile, used the Ascot Hurdle as the kick-start of her hurdling career, winning the likes of the Champion Hurdle, Aintree Hurdle and, of course, the Gold Cup in the years that followed to become the most successful racemare in National Hunt history.
To put it another way, this race separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to top-level hurdles. Not all of them win this race at the start of their career, with Rock On Ruby being an example of one that won the Champion Hurdle and the Relkeel Hurdle in the years before this, but it’s a tough race that brings out the best in the competitors. If you want to know about decent hurdlers then this is one to watch.
Gerard Bertrand Hurst Park Handicap
Class 2, 2m1f
Coming hot on the heels of the weekend’s two graded races is this Class 2 steeplechase. It’s for horses aged four and over and asks them to jump thirteen fences during the course of it. Run over two miles and one hundred and sixty-seven yards, the race offers prize money of around £78,000, meaning that the field is often decent enough.
Ascot Standard Open NH Flat Race
Class 4, 1m7½f
The weekend meeting comes to a close with a flat race that is run under National Hunt conditions. Sponsored by the Racehorse Ownership Authority, this bumper is for horses aged between four and six. Obviously there are no jumps to be dealt with, so instead it’s just about which horse can run the one mile, seven furlongs and one hundred and fifty-two yards of this Class 4 race the fastest.
About Ascot's November Racing Weekend
If you asked someone with only a passing interest in racing to name a course where they would expect to be able to see some flat racing then it’s a reasonably safe bet that they’d mention Ascot. The course that has such close ties with the Royal Family is famed for phenomenal flat races like the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Yet it also plays host to some top jump races, with the November Racing Weekend being a time when the best jumpers in the business roll up to Ascot like an invading party coming to see how the other half lives.
It’s a weekend that has had various motivations since its inception, though the current one comes under the banner of being the ‘Discover Racehorse Ownership Weekend’, encouraging those that might not otherwise know an awful lot about racing to head to the course and see what they can learn. It’s free to enter on the Friday, with the excitement of the races on the course matched by the chance to pick up some tips and hints about the sport off it. Things get more serious on the Saturday, though, thanks in no small part to the pair of Grade 2 races that take place.
The Friday is all about education for those that don’t have a huge heap of interest in or knowledge of the sport. There are fund-raising opportunities for the Animal Health Trust and the Retraining of Racehorses, whilst you’ll also get a chance to have a go on an equicisor and see if you’ve got what it takes to be a jockey. That doesn’t mean that the racing itself is an irrelevance, of course and there are plenty of races that will capture the imagination.
The Saturday of the meeting sees things become a bit more serious on the track, though the day itself remains about trying to get people more interested in the world of horse racing. Before the racing gets underway, for example, there’s often a walk around the course with a professional or former jockey who will talk you through the process of what racing at Ascot entails. You’ll also see a procession of retired horses if you get there early enough.
Obviously the most important thing remains the racing itself, so on that front you’ll be treated to a host of exciting numbers that are capped off with the two Grade 2 offerings that you’ll want to keep a close eye on.