Standard Open National Hunt

Standard Open National Hunt Overview

The Weatherbys nhstallions.co.uk Standard Open NH Flat race is a Grade 2 flat contest run over a distance of two miles and one furlong of the Mildmay course. It is run currently as the last race of the day on Saturday, the final day of the three-day Grand National meeting in early April.

The winner is likely to receive approximately £28,000 in prize money. The race is open to horses aged between four and six years of age only. Horses who raced in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival can often be found in the field.

Standard Open National Hunt Betting Trends and Statistics

• The race is only open to four, five and six-year-olds, but it’s the five-year-olds that have the best recent record, having taken seven of the last nine renewals with two runnings going to six-year-olds.
• Just the one favourite has won in that time span (McFabulous at 2/1) and the race has a habit of throwing up a big priced winner with a 33/1 and 28/1 shot obliging.
• The leading trainer in the race is Nigel Twiston-Davies with four victories – Kings Road (1998), The Cool Guy (2005), The New One (2012) and Ballyboley (2014) although Paul Nicholls has the best recent record with two victories in the past nine years with McFabulous (2019) and Knappers Hill (2021).
• Sam Twiston-Davies is the leading jockey in recent years with two victories on The New One (2012) and Ballybolley (2014).

Standard Open National Hunt History

The contest was first run in 1987 and, having previously been sponsored by brewery giants John Smiths for eight years, has been sponsored by Weatherbys since 2014. It was given Grade 2 status in 1995. The 1997 edition of the race was cancelled due to a security alert at Aintree Racecourse. It was also delayed until May in 2007 after a faller in the Grand National that year was still being treated on the course.