What is a Grade 1 jumps race?

What does Grade 1 mean over jumps?

Grade 1 is the top tier of British and Irish jumps racing, where the best hurdlers, chasers and bumper horses meet at level weights with only age and mares' allowances.

A Grade 1 is a championship test. There are no penalties for earlier wins and no weights based on official ratings, so the best horse on the day should come out on top. That is why Grade 1 races decide the titles that matter in jumps racing: the Cheltenham Gold Cup over about 3m2f, the Champion Hurdle over about 2m and the Queen Mother Champion Chase over about 2m.

Grade 1 races carry the most prize money and the most prestige, and a Grade 1 win defines a horse's career and its value at stud or as a broodmare. Trainers plan whole seasons around a handful of them.

How do Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 jumps races compare?

Grade 1 races carry no penalties; Grade 2 races can carry penalties for earlier wins; Grade 3 was traditionally the label for the most valuable handicaps. Prize money and the level of winners fall at each step down.

Grade 2 races are often trials for the Grade 1s, such as a Cheltenham Gold Cup candidate warming up in a Grade 2 chase in the autumn. Penalties mean a horse that has already won a big race gives weight to the rest. Grade 3 handicaps, and the Premier Handicaps that have taken over that role in Britain, set weights by official rating, so the step from Grade 3 to Grade 1 is also a step from handicap weights to level weights.

What are novice, juvenile and open Grade 1s?

Open Grade 1s are for any eligible horse, novice Grade 1s for horses that had not won over hurdles or fences before the current season, and juvenile Grade 1 hurdles for 4 year olds.

Separate championships let horses meet rivals at the same stage of their careers. A future Gold Cup winner usually runs in novice chases first, and a young hurdler might win the Triumph Hurdle as a 4 year old before taking on older horses.

• Open: Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, King George VI Chase
• Novice hurdles: Supreme Novices' Hurdle over about 2m
• Novice chases: Arkle over about 2m
• Juvenile hurdles: Triumph Hurdle for 4 year olds
• Bumpers: the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival
• Mares: the Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival

Do horses carry penalties in Grade 1 hurdles and chases?

Horses carry no penalties in Grade 1 jumps races. Mares receive a sex allowance, usually 7lb, and younger horses can receive weight for age, so weights are otherwise level.

The allowances are fixed in the race conditions, not decided by the handicapper. A mare in the Champion Hurdle carries 7lb less than a gelding of the same age, and a 4 year old taking on older hurdlers receives weight for age, 10lb in the Champion Hurdle. That is why mares and 4 year olds sometimes look well treated in Grade 1s even though no horse has a rating-based weight. Annie Power and Honeysuckle both won the Champion Hurdle as mares with the benefit of that allowance.

When are the Grade 1 jumps races run each season?

The British and Irish Grade 1 season runs from November to early May, with clusters at Christmas, the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown.

Almost every Grade 1 sits inside a few peak meetings, so the jumps season builds towards them. The Cheltenham Festival in March holds the biggest cluster. The Grade 1 table on this page lists last season's British winners, and the data page carries the calendar ahead with last season's dates.

Why is the Grand National not a Grade 1 race?

The Grand National is a handicap, so weights follow each horse's official rating instead of being level. A Grade 1 must be run at level weights, so a handicap cannot hold that grade.

The Grand National is the richest jumps race in Britain but it answers a different question. A Grade 1 asks which horse is best; a handicap asks which horse can win when the weights try to bring the field together. In Britain the National now runs as a Premier Handicap, the label for the most important handicaps, rather than as a Graded race.

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