Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase

The Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase, known for sponsorship purposes as the Close Brothers Novices' Handicap Chase, is a Listed National Hunt chase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run on the Old Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 2 miles and 4½ furlongs (4,124 metres), and during its running there are sixteen fences to be jumped. It is a handicap race for novice chasers with a handicap rating between 0 and 140, and it is scheduled to take place each year during the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Contents

• Records
• Winners
• References

The event was established when a fourth day was added to the Cheltenham Festival in 2005. The winning ride by Mattie Batchelor in the inaugural edition subsequently won the Lester Award for Jump Ride of the Year. The race was sponsored by Jewson from 2005 to 2010 and run as the Jewson Novices' Handicap Chase on the third day of the Festival. Jewson transferred their sponsorship to a new race at the 2011 Festival, the Jewson Novices' Chase, which remained on the third day while the Novices' Handicap Chase was moved to become the final race on the opening day of the Festival. The race title commemorated the centenary of the Cheltenham Festival in 2011. In 2012 the race was sponsored by Pulteney Land Investments and from 2013 to 2014 by Rewards4Racing. In 2015 it was sponsored by Chaps Restaurants Barbados and since 2016 the race has been sponsored by Close Brothers Group.