There are a handful of things that make racing seem weird to outsiders, and definitely don’t help us when it comes to presenting the product.
Walkovers are one of them, and in the last few days, we’ve seen three, all coming in novice chase races.
This season, there’s been a switch-up in the novice division to try to improve entries, and the prize money has been there. But the runners haven’t.
A lack of British runners in the St Leger at the end of the flat season highlighted the problems that code of racing has, now it’s novice chases showing that jumps racing also has an issue.
Small Fields and Walkovers in Early Novice Chase Races
In the space of five days, we’ve had three walkovers due to small fields being declared, followed by non-runners to leave just one competitor.
Kempton on Monday was the latest of those, originally with two runners declared, but a non-runner left the Olly Murphy-trained Secret Trix in position to claim the walkover and win the first prize.
Including another walkover today at Kempton, here are the stats for novice/beginners chases ran since October:
14 races.
38 runners.
2.7 runners per race.8 of the 14 have either been walkovers or 2-runner races.
The ground has been a factor, but this is extremely concerning. https://t.co/zBLJqWLS69
— Dan Overall (@OverandClear) November 10, 2025
A day earlier, Sandown had their first jumps meeting of the season, a time that should be full of excitement at the card taking place. While there were exciting moments, the opening race on the card was another novice chase walkover.
This time, one runner taken out to leave Admiral Stewart as the sole participant for Jamie Snowden, after two were originally declared to run.
Forward again, this time to Newbury on Thursday, who had a walkover to open their card with Josh The Boss the one to get the victory here, after Sixmilebridge was taken out of the contest, again one that had just two runners declared.
What makes this worse is that Josh The Boss actually ran on Tuesday of the same week, finishing second at Warwick, in you guessed it, a two-runner race. Jumps horses don’t usually run twice in three days. There was every chance he would have been taken out on Thursday, but of course, when Sixmilebridge was, he stayed in to claim the prize.
Walkovers Happening in Revamped Novice Chase Program
While the idea of a walkover itself should be embarrassing enough for the BHA, to make matters worse, these have been happening in a newly revamped novice chase program that they designed during the summer to give more money and more opportunities.
The four races in total I’ve spoken about, three walkovers and the two-horse race on Tuesday, saw a total of five horses go to post, and £68,500 given out in prize money.
I’m not sure the opportunities and money is needed, what’s actually needed is less opportunities, to spread horses out a bit more.
Yes, we can blame the ground, too quick for some, but then, actually, the reason many trainers don’t run on fast ground is because they know other opportunities are just around the corner. We limit those opportunities, we force them to run, because the option is sitting in a horsebox at home.
Of course, the ground needs to be safe, but let’s trust the courses to put safe ground on for us, rather than allowing trainers to say what is and isn’t safe for their horses. If they choose not to run, then that’s their choice, but that decision is a lot tougher if options are limited over the next few weeks, because the program has been reduced.
In the middle of all this, a novice chase at Exeter that offered the same prize money with four runners. So combined, a total of nine runners when you add in the ones that took part in the walkovers and the two-runner race.
Logistically, this is a massive issue to solve, but when you look at the facts, in the space of seven days, nine horses have been entered in these novice chase contests.
So why on earth are we offering five different races for them to run in? While we have so few runners prepared to run, despite decent prize money (of course, it could still be better), then it makes no sense to keep the number of options so high and spread horses out so thin.
Keep doing that, and walkovers will never go away.
