Race 1 · St. Patrick's Thursday · Thursday, 12 March 2026 · ~1:30pm
Turners Novices' Chase
Live betting odds for the intermediate novice chasing championship — 2m 3f 200y · Grade 1 · Old Course
Live betting odds for the intermediate novice chasing championship — 2m 3f 200y · Grade 1 · Old Course
Compare the latest odds from all major bookmakers for the Turners Novices' Chase. Updated as we approach St. Patrick's Thursday on 12 March 2026.
Leading racing analysts, journalists and tipsters share their views on the opening race of St. Patrick's Thursday 2026.
Ruby Walsh
"Bambino Fever has improved a good bit fitness-wise and that should see her turning the tables with Oldschool Outlaw."
Tony Mullins
"Bambino Fever is the bet of the meeting."
Sportingnews.com
Bambino Fever is a solid outright winner contender — serious each-way consideration at the very worst in this day 3 opener.
Racing Post
All Racing Post tipsters agree that Bambino Fever is the horse to beat.
TalkSPORT — Tom Lunn
Bambino Fever is a huge favourite for this opener. "She's a six-year-old chestnut mare who impressed winning with ease in a maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse in January. She won the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham Festival last year and that form so often works out well."
The Turners Novices' Chase occupies a unique position in the Festival novice chasing landscape — an intermediate championship at two miles three furlongs and two hundred yards that bridges the pure speed of the Arkle and the stamina test of the RSA.
The race suits horses of genuine class who have slightly more substance than an Arkle type but who are not quite the staying machine that the RSA demands. It is a race for the well-rounded novice chaser — one who can travel with pace, jump accurately and produce a sustained effort up the Cheltenham hill over a distance that tests both speed reserves and stamina.
The Turners was introduced to the Festival programme as a response to the increasing quality of novice chasing, and it has quickly established itself as one of the key races of St. Patrick's Thursday. It provides an additional championship opportunity for novice chasers who don't fit neatly into the Arkle or RSA categories, and the race has produced winners of genuine quality who have gone on to significant careers in open company.
Ireland has dominated the Turners, as with virtually all Festival novice races, with Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott regularly sending the top-class novice chasers who have impressed at Grade 1 level during the season. The best guide to Turners potential comes from the Irish Grade 1 novice chases run over two and a half miles or thereabouts.
