Select Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Jump Finale)

Explore the prestigious Select Hurdle at Sandown, a thrilling Grade 2 hurdle over 2m5½f. Delve into past winners, top trainers, and jockeys while uncovering key trends that shape this exciting event during the Jump Finale meeting.
Select Hurdle Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Jump Finale)
Andy Powell
Andy Powell Content Editor

Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.

2025 Select Hurdle Preview

Scheduled to take place in April of each year at the Sandown racecourse is the Select Hurdle, a Grade 2 race that is run on the Jump Finale day.

The race was upgraded from Listed to Grade 2 in 2017, three years after being established in 2014. It's run over a trip of two miles, and five and a half furlongs during which a total of 11 hurdles are jumped and is currently sponsored by bet365.

Select Hurdle Information:

To see which runners the OLBG racing tipsters are tipping throughout the card that includes this race, head over to the Sandown tips on the day of the race, do they agree with the runners on the trend shortlist or are they predicting other runners? You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Other Principal Races at Sandown Racecourse section for links to these.

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How competitive is the Select Hurdle market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 10 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2022 when the race had an over-round of 109%. The race in 2017 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 115%, whilst on average over the last 10 renewals of the Select Hurdle, the over-round has been 112%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £112 which is bet.

Below you will find the 2025 Select Hurdle Trends, see which patterns have occurred over the recent renewals that you may be able to use for the next renewal, we also have a section that looks at the Select Hurdle Trend Analysis.

These are the top three quickest-run Select Hurdle over the last 10 renewals:

  1. Polly Peachum (5:15.75) in 2015
  2. Younevercall (5:16.30) in 2019
  3. LAmi Serge (5:20.50) in 2017

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 10 if you had followed the winner of the Select Hurdle next time out then you would have backed a total of 2 winners. Backing all 9 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -6.02. Remember to use the racing predictions along with the information on this page to find a bet on the 2025 Select Hurdle.

The runner that holds the record over the past 10 renewals for the slowest time in the race was set in the 2023 renewal when Knappers Hill from Paul Nicholls under the guidance of Bryony Frost, won in a time of 5:40.00, whilst at the other end of the spectrum, Polly Peachum, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by David Bass set the quickest time of 5:15.75 in the 2015 renewal.

What the expert says...
The 2022 winner (McFabulous) and the 2024 winner (Impaire Et Passe) both came here having run in the Aintree last time out with the most recent of those winning both races.

Andy Powell - Horse Racing Betting Expert - OLBG.com

Select Hurdle Past Winners

Here are the Select Hurdle past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. The horse's trainer and the jockey at the time of winning the Select Hurdle are also displayed, along with the starting price at which the horse was sent off.

YearHorseInfo
2024
5:25.00
Impaire Et Passe (FR)
6yo 11-10 4/5F
Paul Townend
W P Mullins (IRE)
2023
5:40.00
Knappers Hill (IRE)
7yo 11-10 11/2
Bryony Frost
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2022
5:26.20
McFabulous (IRE)
8yo 11-10 4/1
Lorcan Williams
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2021
5:23.50
Younevercall (IRE)
10yo 11-0 5/2F
David Bass
Kim Bailey (GB)
2019
5:16.30
Younevercall (IRE)
8yo 11-0 9/4F
David Bass
Kim Bailey (GB)
2018
5:30.50
Call Me Lord (FR)
5yo 11-0 6/4F
Nico de Boinville
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2017
5:20.50
LAmi Serge (IRE)
7yo 11-0 7/2
Daryl Jacob
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2016
5:22.70
Ptit Zig (FR)
7yo 11-0 7/4F
Sam Twiston-Davies
Paul Nicholls (GB)
2015
5:15.75
Polly Peachum (IRE)
7yo 10-11 9/4F
David Bass
Nicky Henderson (GB)
2014
5:24.70
Southfield Theatre (IRE)
6yo 11-0 15/8F
Sam Twiston-Davies
Paul Nicholls (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Select Hurdle have been based:

  • GB: 9 winners with an additional 10 placings from 57 runners
  • IRE: 1 winner with an additional 1 placing from 4 runners

Select Hurdle Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Select Hurdle over the last 10 renewals is Paul Nicholls who has won the race four times with those four winners coming from Southfield Theatre (2014), Ptit Zig (2016), McFabulous (2022) and Knappers Hill (2023). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Select Hurdle are Nicky Henderson (3 wins) and Kim Bailey (2 wins).

Here are some of the top Select Hurdle trainer statistics over the last 10 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

TrainerR-W-PWinEW
Paul Nicholls14-4-6+3.13-0.93
Nicky Henderson16-3-6-5.75-3.69
Kim Bailey2-2-2+4.75+2.97
W P Mullins2-1-2-0.20+0.58
Gary Moore4-0-1-4.00-3.06
Paul Webber2-0-1-2.00+0.00
Nigel Twiston-Davies2-0-0-2.00-2.00
Alan King2-0-0-2.00-2.00
Neil King1-0-1-1.00+0.50
Dan Skelton1-0-1-1.00+0.20

Select Hurdle Jockey Statistics

The leading jockey in the Select Hurdle over the last 10 renewals is David Bass who has won the race three times with those three winners coming from Polly Peachum (2015) and Younevercall (2019 & 2021). The only other jockey to have recorded multiple wins in the Select Hurdle is Sam Twiston-Davies (2 wins).

Here are some of the top Select Hurdle jockey statistics over the last 10 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

JockeyR-W-PWinEW
David Bass3-3-3+7.00+4.38
Sam Twiston-Davies5-2-2+0.63-0.73
Nico de Boinville6-1-3-3.50-1.12
Bryony Frost1-1-1+5.50+3.44
Lorcan Williams1-1-1+4.00+0.00
Paul Townend1-1-1+0.80+0.48
Harry Cobden4-0-0-4.00-3.00
Rex Dingle2-0-1-2.00+0.00
Harry Skelton2-0-1-2.00-0.80
James Bowen2-0-0-2.00-2.00

Select Hurdle Trend Analysis

✅ The trend factor which had produced 5+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +8.93 is when runners were 1st in the betting market.

❌ The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners carried 158lbs, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-17.

The course which has produced the most winners of the Select Hurdle is Cheltenham, there has been a total number of 4 winners of this race who ran at Cheltenham last time out.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 9 winners from a total of 54 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 1 winner from a total of 7 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, these are the stallions whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Select Hurdle:

  • Kings Theatre (2 Wins)
  • Yeats (2 Wins)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 10 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Knappers Hill in 2023, winning for Paul Nicholls at odds of 11/2 under the guidance of Bryony Frost. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 10 renewals there have been 7 winning favourites in the race. Remember to use the best racing tipsters along with the information on this page to find you a bet on the 2025 Select Hurdle.

Route to the Select Hurdle

Many trainers will target races to use as prep races before coming to the Select Hurdle, these are the races which the recent winners ran in before coming here:

InfoLast Race
2024 - Impaire Et Passe
Aintree - 1st of 8 (1/1)
Aintree Hurdle
2023 - Knappers Hill
Fontwell - 3rd of 5 (7/4)
National Spirit Hurdle
2022 - McFabulous
Aintree - 3rd of 7 (29/1)
Aintree Hurdle
2021 - Younevercall
Cheltenham - 8th of 15 (100/1)
Stayers Hurdle
2019 - Younevercall
Ascot - 8th of 11 (20/1)
Long Walk Hurdle
2018 - Call Me Lord
Sandown - 2nd of 17 (8/1)
Imperial Cup
2017 - LAmi Serge
Ayr - 5th of 16 (8/1)
Scottish Champion Hurdle
2016 - Ptit Zig
Cheltenham - 2nd of 7 (7/1)
Cleeve Hurdle
2015 - Polly Peachum
Cheltenham - 2nd of 15 (9/1)
Close Brothers Mares Hurdle
2014 - Southfield Theatre
Cheltenham - 2nd of 23 (20/1)
Pertemps Network Final

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Select Hurdle Preview are at hand, Andy and Darren. They both work on the Horse racing tips team team looking after the tipsters and managing the tips settlement, whilst also creating and managing all of the horse racing event previews for National Hunt Racing.

Darren Brett

Darren Brett

Tipster Competition Manager

Darren has worked in the horse racing industry for decades bringing to OLBG for the last 20 years a wealth of knowledge, creating much of our content on these sports. Darren also manages our Grand National Guide and is the go-to font of knowledge for the world's greatest steeplechase.
Andy Powell

Andy Powell

Content Editor

Andy, a seasoned horse racing expert with over 15 years of experience, possesses a comprehensive understanding of the sport, from delving into complex statistical data for jump racing in the UK and Ireland to crafting insightful national hunt racing blogs for OLBG.

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