Newbury Racecourse
In last month’s OCP magazine I looked at Haydock racecourse. This month I’m heading back down south to Newbury.
Like Haydock. Newbury is one of the top dual-purpose racecourses in Britain.
As before in this series of articles on British racecourses, I will look briefly at the track’s location, history, configuration and will also highlight some significant track stats.
Newbury racecourse is both a flat and National Hunt racecourse. Given that we are now entering the winter jumps season the track stats used will be for National Hunt racing only.
History and Location
Newbury racecourse is in the English county of Berkshire, close to the market town of Newbury. The first race meeting at Newbury took place in 1905 and the first National Hunt meeting took place one year later.
Like many racecourses no racing took place at the course during the First World War and it was used as prisoner of war camp for captured Germans.
Newbury Racecourse location means it’s easily accessible from Junction 12 & 13 of the M4 and easily accessible the M3.
For those coming by public transport Newbury has its own railway station with direct trains from London Paddington and connections from the south west of England.
The feature race of its jumps season is the Ladbroke Trophy, formerly known as the Hennessy Gold Cup, which is held at the end of November or early December. Run over 3m 2f, the race has been won by the likes of Arkle, Burrough Hill Lad and in recent years Demnan, Bobs Worth & Many Clouds.
The other big meeting is the Betfair Hurdle meeting held in mid-February. The Betfair Handicap Hurdle has over the years been one of the biggest betting races of the winter months.
Track Configuration
A left-handed galloping track with long sweeping bends which are easy to negotiate with a long straight to the line. Most pundits describe Newbury as one of the fairest tracks in Britain. The long straight means that hold up horses do well on the hurdles track.
Chasers need to jump well to win at Newbury, as the fences are stiffer than at many other tracks. Although they are stiffer many trainers like to introduce their better novice chasers at the track as there are no tricky fences to overcome.
Newbury Stats: National Hunt
As ever let’s begin by looking at some general stats including favourite stats at the course since 2015.
The stats below are from Jan 1st, 2015 to the time of writing (10/11/19) and cover all jump meetings at the course.
Once again, I am using the ever useful www.horseracebase.com for the stats.
Let’s begin by looking at some general meeting stats from the last five years, beginning with the fate of the favourites both clear and joint.
The results below contain 330 winners from 3105 runners 868 placed.
Favourites
Clear favourites have produced the following set of results:
101 winners from 307 runners 33% -39.98 A/E 0.89 183 placed 60 %.
Breaking those results down into handicap & non-handicap races gives us:
Non-handicap – 58 winners from 140 runners 41% -13.62 A/E 0.91 99 placed 71%.
- Chase – 13 winners from 31 runners 42% -5.63 A/E 0.84 18 placed 58%.
- Hurdle – 37 winners from 81 runners 46% -2.33 A/E 0.95 65 placed 80%.
- NHF – 8 winners from 28 runners 29% -5.66 A/E 0.86 16 placed 57%.
Handicaps – 43 winners from 167 runners 26% -26.36 A/E 0.87 84 placed 50%.
- Chase – 24 winners from 97 runners 25% -15.53 A/E 0.87 46 placed 47%.
- Hurdles – 19 winners from 70 runners 27% -10.83 A/E 0.87 38 placed 54%.
Digging a bit deeper let’s focus on favourites that won their last race and those favourites who had finished outside the first three on their last start.
- Favourites that won their last race have produced – 48 winners from 120 runners 40% -3.37 A/E 0.98 74 placed 62%.
- Favourites that had finished outside the top four on their last start produced – 21 winners from 73 runners 29% -14. 39 A/E 0.84 46 placed 63%.
Summary: The most interesting angles for favourite backers appear to be non-handicap hurdle favourites and favourites who had won their last race.
Trainers and Favourites:
If you’re a favourite backer, here are the best performing trainers when the money is down:
- Warren Greatrex – 5 winners from 7 runners 71% +5.88 A/E 1.58.
- David Pipe – 3 winners from 5 runners 60% +1.78 A/E 1.31 5 placed 100.
- Alan King – 7 winners from 15 runners 47% +4.35 A/E 1.16 12 placed 80%.
- Ben Pauling – 4 winners from 9 runners 44% +1.11 A/E 1.18 5 placed 56%.
- Colin Tizzard – 7 winners from 16 runners 44% +3.44 A/E 1.11 10 placed 63%.
Summary: Not many qualifiers but both Warren Greatrex & David Pipe clear favourites are likely worth noting.
Jockeys and Favourites:
Which jockeys have done the business when the money is down for favourite backers?
- David Bass – 4 winners from 5 runners 80% +3.97 A/E 1.73.
- Gavin Sheehan – 3 winners from 5 runners 60% +3.38 A/E 1.75.
- Tom Scudamore – 5 winners from 10 runners 50% +0.16 A/E 1.07 8 placed 80%.
- Harry Cobden – 5 winners from 11 runners 45% +2.41 A/E 1.31 7 placed 64%.
General Course Stats:
- Odds SP: 16/1 & above – 18 winners from 1141 runners 2% -690 A/E 0.47 103 placed 9%.
- Previous course winners provided 51 winners from 335 runners 15% -60.38 A/E 0.9 109 placed 32%.
Summary: Like Haydock. Newbury isn’t really a course specialist track. Of more interest in those general stats is the poor performance of horses returned 16/1 & bigger.
Trainer Stats and Angles
Here are a few interesting trainer track stats. That will hopefully enable you to identify some winners at Newbury’s upcoming winter jumps season. On this occasion I have concentrated on those runners with an odds threshold of 14/1.
Trainers & Handicap Hurdle Runners (14/1 & under).
- Noel Williams – 3 winners from 5 runners 60% +22.75 A/E 3.09 4 placed 80%.
- Neil Mulholland – 4 winners from 9 runners 44% +15.13 A/E 2.82.
- Nigel Twiston-Davies – 6 winners from 18 runners 33% +25.53 A/E 1.81 7 placed 39%.
- Philip Hobbs – 9 winners from 36 runners 25% +15 A/E 1.51 18 placed 50%.
Trainers & Handicap Chase Runners (14/1 & under).
- Henry Whittington – 4 winners from 9 runners 44% +6.5 A/E 1.96 6 placed 67%.
- Tom Lacey – 3 winners from 7 runners 43% +8 A/E 2.03 4 placed 57%.
- David Dennis – 2 winners from 4 runners 50% +10 A/E 3.17.
- Robin Dickin – 2 winners from 4 runners 50% +10 A/E 4.00.
- Richard Hobson – 2 winners from 5 runners 40% +13.5 A/E 2.82.
Trainers & Race Class – Handicaps (14/1 & under).
- David Pipe (Class 4) – 3 winners from 8 runners 38% +10 A/E 2.5 4 placed 50%.
- Warren Greatrex (Class 3) – 3 winners from 9 runners 33% +10.5 A/E 2.42 5 placed 56%.
Trainers & NHF Races – Racecourse Debutants (14/1 & under).
- Anthony Honeyball – 2 winners from 6 runners 33% +6 A/E 2.27 3 placed 50%.
- Ben Pauling – 2 winners from 7 runners 29% +10.5 A/E 2.56 3 placed 43%.
Newbury Trainer Micro Angles. – Here are three trainer micro angles that could prove profitable to follow this season at Newbury.
System 67 – Nicky Henderson – Newbury Runners.
Non-handicap – Chase & Hurdles.
Odds SP: 7/1 & under.
Last Time Out Placing: No Run or 1st
16 winners from 30 runners 53% +25.25 A/E 1.36 24 placed 80%
System 68 – Philip Hobbs Newbury Runners
Non-handicap – Chases & Hurdles.
9 winners from 31 runners 29% +85.3 A/E 1.65 14 placed 45%.
System 69 – Colin Tizzard Newbury Runners
Handicap Chases only
Odds SP: 12/1 & under
10 winners from 31 runners 32% +28.83 A/E 2.03 17 placed 55%
Hopefully you enjoyed this brief look at Newbury racecourse and some of the track’s National Hunt stats.
The next stop on this tour of British racecourses takes us to Fakenham.
Until next time.
John
