Preview of Day 1 Perth Festival 2026

HIGHLY-regarded No Drama This End is one of several well-known names in action on the opening day of the Perth Festival.
Trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Harry Cobden, he faces five rivals in the £45,000 British EBF Gold Castle ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Hurdle, a Listed contest staged over just short of three miles.

After winning his first three starts over hurdles, he was pulled up at the Cheltenham Festival when things didn’t go his way as the 5/2 favourite in the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Hurdle. 

Fourteen-time champion trainer Nicholls said: “He got squeezed out at the start and then continually met trouble in running so you have to put a line through that day. We had planned to run him at Aintree but he had a slight setback that ruled him out.
“This looks a nice race for him and he’s absolutely fine now. It appears a nice opportunity to get him back on track and the softish ground is what he wants.”

Rivals to No Drama This End include Gordon Elliots’s pair Kazansky and Sept Etoiles.

The other feature race is the £40,000 Fair Maid Of Perth Mares’ Chase, another Listed event over a similar distance.
Dan Skelton, about to be crowned champion trainer for the first time, saddles Panic Attack, who fell at the third fence in the Grand National recently when sent off second favourite.

She is one of three runners at the meeting for Skelton, who has had at least one winner at every British track bar Perth so far this season.
Also in the line-up is Lucinda Russell and Michael Scudamore’s Apple Away, the comfortable winner of the race two years ago. 

The eight-race card begins with the Welcome To The Perth Festival Maiden Hurdle in which Gee Force Flyer supplies soon-to-be two-time champion jockey Sean Bowen with the first of his six booked rides.