The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (formerly the Fred Winter) is run over about 2 miles 1 furlong on the Friday of the Festival. It’s a handicap for four-year-old hurdlers and routinely produces big-priced winners — it’s one of the hardest races of the week to find the winner.
Recent Winners
| Year | Winner | Trainer | Jockey | Age | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Puturhandstogether | J P O’Brien | M P Walsh | 4 | 19/2 |
| 2024 | Lark In The Mornin | J P O’Brien | J J Slevin | 4 | 9/1 |
| 2023 | Jazzy Matty | Gordon Elliott | M O’Sullivan | 4 | 18/1 |
| 2022 | Brazil | Padraig Roche | M P Walsh | 4 | 10/1 |
| 2021 | Jeff Kidder | Noel Meade | S W Flanagan | 4 | 80/1 |
| 2020 | Aramax | Gordon Elliott | M P Walsh | 4 | 17/2 |
| 2019 | Band of Outlaws | J P O’Brien | J J Slevin | 4 | 7/2 |
| 2018 | Veneer Of Charm | Gordon Elliott | J W Kennedy | 4 | 33/1 |
| 2017 | Flying Tiger | Nick Williams | R Johnson | 4 | 33/1 |
| 2016 | Diego Du Charmil | P F Nicholls | S Twiston-Davies | 4 | 15/2 |
Key Trends
Age profile: All 21 winners have been four-year-olds — the race is restricted to that age group.
Favourite record: The favourite has won just 3 of 21 (14%). They’ve placed 9 times from 24 total favourite runners. The average favourite SP of around 5/1 shows the market often identifies one, but it usually gets beaten.
Trainers: Gordon Elliott leads with 4 wins from 32 runners. Paul Nicholls has 3 from 30 (all in the earlier years). Joseph Patrick O’Brien has 3 from 12 — the best recent strike rate at 25%. David Pipe has 1 from 14. Mullins has never won from 25 runners.
Going: Good to Soft has produced 9 winners, Good 7, Soft 4, and Heavy 1. The spread is fairly even across ground types.
What the Data Says
Jeff Kidder at 80/1 in 2021 is the longest-priced Festival winner in recent memory, and this race has form for it. The average winning SP is about 22/1 — comfortably the highest of any Festival race. Five winners have gone off at 33/1 or bigger.
Mullins’ blank from 25 runners is remarkable. He’s the most successful trainer at the Festival overall, yet this race has completely eluded him. Whether that’s because his best juveniles go for the Triumph Hurdle instead is worth considering.
Joseph Patrick O’Brien’s 3 wins from 12 runners (25%) is the angle worth exploring. He won the last two renewals (2024 and 2025) and also took 2019. His yard clearly targets this race with live contenders.
Gordon Elliott’s 4 wins from 32 runners (12.5%) is decent given how competitive the race is, and he’s the most successful trainer historically.
The bottom line: this is a race for big-priced each-way bets. The favourite wins only 14% of the time, and even the placed favourite record (37.5%) is poor. Irish trainers — particularly O’Brien and Elliott — have dominated recently, winning 8 of the last 10 renewals between them.
All Cheltenham Festival races are run at Cheltenham racecourse. See our Cheltenham course guide for trainer and jockey statistics, going analysis, and betting angles.