“This move looks very good” – Ben Pauling praises change to Cheltenham Festival but National Hunt Chase alteration is a “shame”

Ben Pauling is excited to aim Diva Luna towards the Grade 2 Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival
-Credit: (Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)


Naunton-based trainer Ben Pauling believes the change to the Grade 2 Ryanair Mares’ Novices Hurdle at the 2025 Cheltenham Festival is “very, very good”.

Announced by the Jockey Club on Thursday morning, a host of new alterations to the Cheltenham Festival programme will come into effect for next year’s four-day event at Prestbury Park.

The Grade 2 National Hunt Chase will become a Class 2 0-145 Novices’ Handicap Chase, the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Chase will be replaced by a Grade 2 Limited Novices’ Chase over the same course and distance, and the penalty system for the Grade 2 Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle has been scrapped.

“I think, for now, they are quite well-thought-through changes without being too drastic,” the three-time Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer said. “I think they are good changes overall and I think change was needed.”

Before this revamp, the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle – run as race six on the third day of the meeting – had a penalty structure in place that gave extra weight to horses who had won a Graded or Listed race prior to their participation in the contest.

Last year’s winner, Golden Ace, carried 11st 2lb to success having won two regular novice races before Cheltenham, though the runner-up, Brighterdaysahead, carried an extra five pounds (11st 7lb) having won a Grade 3 and Listed novice hurdle during the season.

Pauling is likely to target the race with Diva Luna, a Grade 2 winner at the Aintree Grand National meeting, and he has welcomed the new changes.

“I think that this is one change that is very, very good,” he said. “We had actually decided that we weren’t going to campaign Diva Luna to avoid the penalty.

“We had decided that if she was good enough to compete in Grade 1 contests and she had a penalty which we wouldn’t think she could carry for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, she should be good enough to get a seven-pound allowance in the Supreme or something similar.

“I’m pleased to see the mares’ penalty scrapped because that makes it a proper championship race - it allows the best mares to come to the top on level weights as each championship race should be, so this move looks very good.”

Diva Luna is a general 16/1-shot for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and she is exciting Pauling at home, as he added: “She’s fab. She schooled for the first time this morning and she was absolutely electric. She looks in a great place.

“There’s a race at Uttoxeter at the beginning of November and we’ll then probably go to Newbury for the Listed mares’ hurdle there.

“We’ll then look at the Grade 2 Jane Seymour (Sandown, February) and then Cheltenham. That’s the most trodden route. There’s a Listed race at Taunton which could also fit.

“I’m just looking forward to getting her going and we’ll look to a bog-standard novice race and go from there.”

The boss at Naunton Downs won the National Hunt Chase with Le Breuil in 2019, the last year it was run over 3m7f½f before the distance altered to 3m6f.

When asked about this fresh set of conditions for the race, he said: “The National Hunt Chase needed a revamp because it had become a little bit of an uncompetitive event.

“A large proportion of the amateurs that ride at the Festival are only amateurs in name – the majority are very proficient riders – so it’s a shame to see that change.

“It could probably encroach on the Kim Muir, but only because novices have good track records in the Ultima and Kim Muir. The Kim Muir is four furlongs shorter, so they are different trips.”

He continued: “The amount of people who want the Festival to go back to three days is huge, but that will never happen from a revenue perspective.

“If you were to go back to three days, you would have to change the programme to slim it down and that would increase the competitiveness of it all.

“If we are staying at four, I think they are good changes and well thought through.”

READ MORE: Willie Mullins targeting Ebor and Melbourne Cup with impressive Royal Ascot winner Belloccio

READ MORE: Audience causes shock 22/1 win in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury ahead of Royal Ascot target