2026 Turners Novices Hurdle – No Drama This End a Short Antepost Favourite But It’s Tight at the Top
The 2026 Turners Novices’ Hurdle is shaping up as a deep middle‑distance novice contest, with No Drama This End, Saint Baco, and Sortudo heading an open ante‑post market.
With entries not yet confirmed, punters are working off profiles, trends, and educated guesses about which promising novices will actually line up on 11 March.
The race (registered as the Baring Bingham) opens day two of the Cheltenham Festival over 2m5f on the Old Course, with ten hurdles to jump.
It is the premier championship race for middle‑distance novice hurdlers, and several winners such as Istabraq, Hardy Eustace, and Faugheen have gone on to lift the Champion Hurdle the following season.
In recent years, the race has regularly attracted strong fields from both sides of the Irish Sea, often pitting top British yards against the Irish powerhouse of Willie Mullins, though that did stop him from winning three on the bounce in 2022 (Sir Gerhard), 2023 (Impaire Et Passe), and 2024 (Ballyburn).
The 2025 renewal was won by The New Lion for Dan Skelton, underscoring that home trainers can still land a blow in a division long dominated by the Irish.
No Drama This End – The Favourite
No Drama This End has emerged as a clear ante‑post favourite, typically trading around 4/1 on platforms like Betway, which is unusually short this far out and tells you how highly he is regarded.
He announced himself as the one to beat by winning the Challow Novices’ Hurdle, a traditional strong mid‑winter Grade 1 over 2m5f that often points directly to this race.
His profile is very much that of a Turner’s archetype: travels smoothly, jumps efficiently, and finds generously off the bridle without needing an all‑out stamina test.
The Challow win at Newbury showed he can handle testing ground and a proper pace, and the way he finished off suggested that the Cheltenham hill over the same trip should play to his strengths rather than expose any weaknesses.
Trained by Paul Nicholls, No Drama This End comes from Ditcheat, a yard synonymous with top‑class staying and middle‑distance jumpers.
Saint Baco – Mullins’ Improver
Saint Baco sits behind the favourite at around 10/1 antepost, with confidence increasing after connections aimed him at a rearranged Grade 1 Ballymore‑style race where he was due to clash with Sortudo.
He may have started life as a fairly low‑key maiden winner, but the booking of Paul Townend for that intended Grade 1 engagement was enough to see his Turners price halved.
That move from the market suggests he is doing plenty right at home, and his early runs showed a likeable, uncomplicated style: settles, jumps neatly, and can quicken when asked.
For a race like the Turners, that professionalism is almost as important as raw talent, because day‑two openers can become tactical, stop‑start affairs where the horse that keeps its rhythm tends to come out on top.
Willie Mullins, whose strike‑rate in Festival novice hurdles hardly needs repeating, is not shy about running several in the same race, but Townend’s choice – when declared – is often the best guide to stable pecking order.
Early hints are that Saint Baco is viewed as a major middle‑distance contender rather than an afterthought.
Sortudo – The Strong‑finishing Danger
Sortudo is a touch bigger in the betting, around 14/1, but is firmly in the front rank of contenders and has been on more than one ante‑post short‑list.
Like Saint Baco, he was entered for that rescheduled Grade 1, and the prospect of the two Mullins horses meeting has already sparked plenty of debate about which of them is the “main” one.
On the track he has shown a mixture of stamina and a late surge, coming from off the pace to win over intermediate trips in Ireland, which screams Turners rather than Supreme.
His Racing Post Ratings and sectionals suggest he is at his best when the race develops into a test from three out, and that pattern fits nicely with the way the Old Course can ride when there is an honest gallop from the start.
Being another from the Mullins academy, Sortudo benefits from a programme that routinely graduates novices from strong maiden hurdles into graded company without over‑racing them.
The slight puzzle for punters is whether he stays in this lane or is tempted towards the Albert Bartlett if connections feel an extra furlong and a half would bring out even more improvement.
What Makes the 2026 Turners Different?
The Turners sits between the Supreme (2m) and the Albert Bartlett (3m) in both trip and style, and that middle ground gives it its own distinct identity.
It tends to suit novices who combine speed and stamina: strong enough to see out 2m5f at a true gallop, but not the out‑and‑out sloggers who are better aimed at the three‑miler.
Trends show that most recent winners are 5‑ or 6‑year‑olds who arrive in form, often off a win in a Grade 1 or Grade 2 over roughly this distance.
The race has also become a natural target for horses that shape as if the Supreme is too sharp and the Albert Bartlett too attritional, so many leading yards park their “proper” hurdlers here and send the grinders elsewhere.
How the Turners Fits Into The Festival
Within the wider Cheltenham Festival, the Turners helps knit together the novice narrative, sitting between the speed‑focused Supreme and the stamina‑sapping Albert Bartlett.
It often produces horses who go on to be versatile at two and three miles, and its roll of honour includes several future champions in open company.
For 2026, the shape of the race will depend on how connections divide their squads across the three novice hurdles, but early markets suggest No Drama This End, Saint Baco, and Sortudo are all being campaigned with this specific test in mind.
If they all turn up in March, the second‑day opener could feel less like a stepping stone and more like a championship showdown in its own right, just with novices still learning the ropes as they climb the hill.
