The Dawn Run Mares’
Novices’ Hurdle is a Grade 2 hurdle race run over 2 miles and 179
yards at Cheltenham in March. As the name suggests, the race is
restricted to young female horses aged four years and upwards who,
prior to the start of the current season, have not won a race over
hurdles. The titular Dawn Run was an extraordinary racemare, who
remains the only horse in history to have won both the Champion
Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Currently scheduled for
the third day of the four-day Cheltenham Festival, the race is a
recent addition to the programme, having been inaugurated as recently
as 2016. Since its inception, it has been run under various titles,
for sponsorship purposes, most recently as the Ryanair Mares’
Novices’ Hurdle.

It would be fair to say
that Willie Mullins, the leading trainer in the history of the
Cheltenham Festival, has ‘farmed’ the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
in its short history. In fact, Mullins won the first five of the
seven renewals so far, with Limini (2016), Let’s Dance (2017),
Laurina (2018), Eglantine du Seuil (2019) and Concertista (2020). The
2023 renewal is scheduled for Thursday, March 16, but at this still
early stage, Mullins’ five-year-old mare Ashroe Diamond – who
opened her account over hurdles at the first time of asking at Navan
in November, 2022 – heads the ante-post betting market at 9/1.

Mullins’ dominance
aside, recent trends suggest that punters might do well to
concentrate on mares aged five or six years, officially rated 136 or
higher, who have run at least twice and, preferably, won at least
once, during the current season. Likely candidates could include
Ahorsewithnoname, who finished a close second last year, but remains
a novice over hurdles, and Luccia, who has yet to jump a hurdle in
public, but could hardly have been more impressive when winning a
Listed ‘bumper’ at Sandown by 17 lengths last March.