Mares' Hurdle Tips & Odds

The race takes place at 14:40 on Thursday 10th March 2026.

Established in 2008, the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle is one of the youngest at the festival, with the inaugural running won by Whiteoak for the Donald McCain team. A period of domination began the following year when Quevega picked up the first of a staggering six straight wins for Willie Mullins. Since then the race has become a lot more competitive.

Although Annie Power and Benie Des Dieux share the honours for the most dramatic performances in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, the great Quevega is out on her own, with six straight wins in the race between 2009-2014. Quevega benefitted from some masterful training from Willie Mullins during her career, and successfully won on reappearance in the race for each of her five subsequent successes, regularly making just two starts each season - attempting to follow up at Punchestown a month later. Quevega successfully completed the Cheltenham/Punchestown double in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, before suffering defeat on the final start of her career at Punchestown in 2014.

There is a range of Mares’ events which serve as pointers for the festival event throughout the season, with the most significant of those being the olbg.com Mares’ Hurdle at Warwick. Over in Ireland, it’s worth keeping an eye on the Quevega Mares’ Hurdle at Punchestown, a race in which several recent protagonists have warmed up in before running at Cheltenham.

The most successful jockey in the history of the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle is Ruby Walsh, with eight wins. Six of Walsh’s wins in the Mares’ Hurdle came on board Quevega, who won the race in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, while Walsh has also won the race on Vroum Vroum Mag in 2016 and Benie Des Dieux in 2018.

The most successful trainer in the history of the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle is Willie Mullins, who has trained a scarcely believable eleven winners from 12 runnings. Mullins’ nine winners have come courtesy of Quevega (for six straight renewals from 2009-2014), while he has also won the race with Glens Melody (2015), Vroum Vroum Mag (2016), Benie Des Dieux (2018) and Lossiemouth twice (2024 and 2025).