The Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase, known for sponsorship purposes as the Close Brothers Novices' Handicap Chase, 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, 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 145, and in 2019 in will be run as the penultimate race on the Tuesday card. 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. This 0-140 handicap is remarkable for its dominance by English trainers over the years (only Tom Taafe has won it for Ireland in 2008 with Finger On The Pulse) and probably the most memorable renewal was the staggering victory of Hunt Ball in 2012 off a mark of 142, having started the season on a mark of 68 at Folkstone. The handicap is usually incredibly compressed, for example in 2015 there were only 6lbs separating the 20 runners. With a week to go there are 47 remaining (max field of 20) so anything below Beyond The Law (rated 136 and currently number 30 on the list) might have to look elsewhere. Current favourite is a little hard to define but it is between A Plus Tard and Riders Onthe Storm, followed by Tower Bridge - all 3 trained in Ireland and bookmakers and punters obviously not worried about the poor record of Irish trainers in the race. Charlie Longsden's talented mare Castafiore will get a run off 139 and ought to be on the shortlist after a fine 2nd to Bags Groove on ground quicker than ideal at Kempton.
