Long Walk Hurdle Tips: Big Race Preview for Ascot on 20 December 2025

The Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot is always one of the top staying hurdle races of the season and provides some useful insight into which horses could be contending to win the Stayers Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Billy Grimshaw has gone through the main contenders and provided a best bet as well as a predicted 1-2-3...

Honesty Policy (M Walsh / G Elliott)

A second-season hurdler with bags of potential. His CV already boasts three wins from five runs including the Grade 1 Mersey Novices Hurdle at Aintree and he signed off last season with a second placed finish in a Grade 1 Novice Hurdle at Punchestown. Gordon Elliott has been in good form of late but this feels like a tough assignment for a five-year-old without a run under his belt this season. He could well end up being the best of these but I'm not sure he will be quite fit enough to win here.

Impose Toi (N de Boinville / N Henderson)

Like the above Honesty Policy, Impose Toi is owned by JP McManus and I'd be surprised if one of his runners isn't being welcomed in the winners enclosure after this race on Saturday. For me, Impose Toi is the more solid of the two - arriving here on the back of a win in the Coral Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury, fighting back to win after making a bit of a mess at the last. He is worse off at the weights with the reopposing Strong Leader today but there was a lot to like about the way he travelled and then battled on to win indicating there may have been a bit left in the tank if required.

Strong Leader (S Bowen / O Murphy)

There would be plenty quite sweet on Strong Leader's chances today given he was only beaten half a length by Impose Toi last time and is 6lb's better off at the weights today. The main worry with this horse is that he started the 2024 Long Walk as the 11/8 favourite but ended it tailed off and last of the ten finishers. If you can forgive that run, you'd have to give him a fantastic chance today given his otherwise fairly consistent record. This year's race certainly looks stronger than last year's though and the feeling is that Strong Leader just may not be good enough to win.

Potters Charm (S Twiston-Davies / N & W Twiston-Davies)

This six-year-old racked up a decent winning streak at the beginning of last season, winning a couple of Novice Hurdles at Cheltenham and a Grade 1 Novice Hurdle at Aintree. He ended the campaign with a fifth placed finish in the Turners Novices Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and began this term as favourite for the Grade 2 bet365 Hurdle at Wetherby only to fall in a race that Strong Leader went on to win. Last time out he finished a creditable third in the Ascot Hurdle and its difficult to see him beating that position here.

Crambo (J Burke / F O'Brien)

The winner of the last two renewals of this race, he will surely make a bold bid to land a Long Walk hat-trick but the 2025 race looks of much higher quality than the two he won and he could be running for place money at best. At around 9/1 though - the price he triumphed at lat year - he will surely be popular with each way or place only backers.