Betfair Stayers’ Handicap Hurdle Betting Tips, Winners & History

Next Race: TBD

The next renewal of this race has not been scheduled yet. We will update this once the schedule has been released for next season. The race info, trends and tips shown below will be updated for the next renewal once the final declarations have been made.

Betfair Stayers’ Handicap Hurdle Betting Tips

Note: The following tips are from 2020. Tips for the next renewal will be added once the final declarations have been made.

Of the trainers on show this year, Henry Daly, Philip Hobbs, Alan King and Dan Skelton all have a previous win in the race to their name. It is David Pipe who tops the all-time trainers’ table though with three successes on the board. Pipe sends the well-fancied Main Fact into battle this time around.

The younger end of the age spectrum has held the edge in this event, with 11 of the fifteen editions to have been run to date having been landed by a runner aged six years or younger. That’s a particularly interesting stat this year, as only five of the 17-runner field fall into the favoured age bracket.

In common with many competitive handicap contests, the market has found this race tough to call over the years. The past 10 years have featured just the one winning favourite, handing supporters of the market leader a loss of £7.50 to £1 level stakes.

Imperial Alcazar– 11/2

The market may well be factoring in that trend towards the younger runners, as three of the five contenders aged six and under feature in the top five in the betting in this field of 17. The shortest price of that trio is the Fergal O’Brien representative, Imperial Alcazar.

This six year old son of Vinnie Roe certainly scores top marks for consistency having only once finished outside of the first three in his six career starts to date. Unable to quite break his duck in three bumper outings, he improved for the switch to hurdles last season in winning in Class 4 and Class 3 Novice company. The pick of his efforts though came in the Listed Ballymore Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham in January. Initially beaten by a head into second that day, he was awarded the race on the day by the stewards only to then be subsequently demoted to second once again upon appeal.

That’s solid enough form ahead of a handicap debut off a mark of 140, and form which has already been given a significant boost this season. The horse involved with Imperial Alcazar in that back and forth business with the stewards was none other than Dan Skelton’s Protektorat. The same Protektorat who slammed Paul Nicholls’ 146-rated chaser Southfield Stone by 17 lengths on his fencing debut this season. Paddy Brennan takes the ride and this one looks a threat to all.

Main Fact – 7/1

Considering this race only made its debut in 2005, and is invariably one of the most competitive staying handicap hurdles on the calendar, David Pipe has done very well to rack up three wins already. Anything the Nicholashayne handler sends to post is therefore always worth a second look, and all the more so when that runner arrives seeking a ninth win on the spin.

Step forward the remarkable, Main Fact. A winner of two of his 15 starts with his two previous handlers prior to joining the Pipe operation in June 2018, the son of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Blame, was given the best part of two years to settle into his new surroundings before making his comeback appearance at Exeter. Given that time away from the track, it was therefore most encouraging that he managed to finish a close up third in that event. And that certainly suggested that a lowly mark of 98 may not be beyond him. It was still pretty difficult to predict what was to come though, with the gelding winning his five subsequent starts over hurdles, rising fully 49lbs in the handicap in the process.

Fit and well from three successive wins on the flat so far this season, the soft ground here will be in his favour. The big question mark concerns the fact that he will be stepping up to 3m for the first time. However, he has often shaped like a stayer, and his most recent hurdles outing resulted in a 15 length demolition job in a 2m4f heavy ground contest at Uttoxeter. This one may not be done improving quite yet.

West To The Bridge – 16/1

There are a whole host of interesting contenders amongst those available at a double figure price, including the high-class Kalashnikov at the head of the weights, and Alan King’s hero of a dual purpose performer, Who Dares Wins. Anyone seeking an each way punt in the race may want to consider West To The Bridge from the yard of Dan Skelton.

Skelton knows what it takes to land this prize having saddled Baradari to victory in 2015 and would look to have a lively outsider this year in the shape of this son of Flemensfirth. As a seven year old making his 15th appearance over hurdles, this one doesn’t boast the most obvious profile for the race, but on the evidence of this season’s form he does seem to have found a new lease of life. This is an opinion with which the handicapper agrees with having raised the horse to a career high hurdles mark of 140.

Making his seasonal debut over just shy of this trip at Uttoxeter, this regular front runner reverted to hold up tactics, and put in a fine effort to finish a close second despite getting the final flight wrong. Once again held up over 2m4f last time out at Carlisle, he cantered all over the field from a long way out that day before powering clear for a three and a quarter length success from the useful Mount Mews. Seemingly in the form of his life, he offers decent each way value with a number of firms paying out on the first five.