St James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase

This Race Trend Index (RTI) sheet scores every declared runner in the 2026 St James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase against the key statistical trends consistently shared by past Cheltenham Festival winners of this race.

Each horse is assessed across a range of historical winner markers such as:

• Age profile
• Official Rating
• Recent form
• Days since last run
• Course experience
• Distance experience
• Previous chase form
• Market position
• And other race-specific historical indicators

Every trend is weighted based on how predictive it has historically been, producing a final RTI Score (%) for each runner — showing how closely they align with the typical winning profile for this race.

📊 What The RTI Score Means

• A higher RTI Score indicates stronger historical alignment with past winners
• A lower RTI Score suggests the runner deviates from the most common winning characteristics

This allows you to quickly identify:

✔ Runners that match the traditional winning profile

✔ Potential statistical outliers

✔ Overlooked contenders in the betting

✔ Horses that historically “fit” the race best

🧠 How To Use This Sheet

The RTI is not designed to predict the winner outright —

Instead, it highlights which runners most closely match the proven winning trends for this specific Cheltenham Festival race.

Use the RTI ratings to:

• Build shortlists
• Support or oppose market leaders
• Identify value against the betting
• Add a data-driven layer to your race analysis