Wayward Lad Novices' Chase

The Wayward Lad Novices' Chase is a Grade 2 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of about 2 miles (3,219 metres), and during its running there are twelve fences to be jumped. The race is for novice chasers, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late December.

The event is named in honour of Wayward Lad, a winner of Kempton's most prestigious race, the King George VI Chase, three times during the 1980s. The earliest version of the race was contested over 2½ miles, and this was extended by 110 yards in 1992. The race was absent from the National Hunt calendar in 1999, but it returned the following year with a new distance of 2 miles. It was subsequently promoted to Grade 2 status, and it was first run at this level in 2005. Since 2009 it has been sponsored by William Hill and titled the Williamhill.com Novices' Chase.

Winners since 1988

¹ The 2004 running was abandoned because of frost.
² The race was switched to Sandown Park in 2005 as Kempton was closed for redevelopment.
³ The 2010 running was abandoned because of frost.

Wayward Lad

Wayward Lad, an English Thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1975, was one of the "Dickinson five". (Michael Dickinson trained all the horses which took the first five places at the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup). But there was far more than that to Wayward Lad's career, which ended in early 1987. By then he had won 28 of his 55 races on 16 different tracks and his final success, at the 1987 Grand National meeting, brought his career earnings to £218,732, at the time a sum beaten only by Dawn Run. His best wins came in that Liverpool race (now the Totesport Bowl) twice, the King George VI Chase, which he won for a third time in 1985, the Charlie Hall Chase and the Edward Hanmer Chase. A row between his owners resulted in him going to Doncaster sales, where Tony Dickinson (Michael's father) bought him for 42,000 Guineas and sent him to retirement with his son, who had begun a new career training in the USA.

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