This Grade 3 handicap 8-hurdle race takes place on Friday 16th March at 14.10 GMT. For horses aged five years and older, the second race on day four is held on the New Course at Cheltenham and is run over two miles and one furlong.
The County Hurdle was won last year by Artic Fire for Willie Mullins at (20-1) ridden by Paul Townend. Second place L’Ami Serge (25-1) and third Ozzie the Oscar at (50-1).
This race actually started in 1920, although records for the race only date back to 1946. In 2017, it changed its name from the Vincent O’Brien to the Randox Health County handicap Hurdle with their new sponsorship.
Punters find that this race at the Cheltenham Festival is the most challenging one to back a winner. Named after Vincent O’Brien, the horse racing legend, who died in 1994 with a record breaking 23 wins at the Festival. This race is usually won by a classy horse, even though the competitors include a huge and varied field of different handicaps. Over the last few years, Willie Mullins has trained four of the previous eight winners, so punters expect big things from him again in 2018. One of this year’s favourites is once again a Willie Mullins horse, Max Dynamite. He has run in the Melbourne cup twice and in the Ascot Gold Cup and punters see him in with a big chance.
