Hexham
National Hunt

Hexham is a left-handed circuit of roughly 1 mile 4 furlongs, set around 800 feet above sea level (600 feet above the town of Hexham itself) — widely cited as the second-highest racecourse in England after Exeter, and the most northerly jumps course in England. The ground away from the stands is relatively level, but the back straight then descends sharply before runners face a steep, sustained climb through most of the home straight, with the ground only levelling out in the final 250 yards or so. Three-time champion jockey Brian Hughes has described it simply: horses either handle the track or they don’t. The run-in is short, around one furlong. A genuinely distinctive detail: the fence wings are still framed by copper beech hedges, planted in 1907 by founder C.W.C. Henderson and never replaced since. Hexham’s exposed, high-altitude setting also means the course doesn’t race at all in January or February.

The modern course dates to a reopening on 23 April 1890, after earlier informal meetings at Tyne Green (from 1721) and Yarridge Heights gave way to an 1880s closure. Founder Charles William Chipchase Henderson bought the freehold in 1907 and planted the beech hedges still in use today; his son Stephen and then a private limited company carried the course through two World Wars, including requisition as a WWII ammunition store. Kit Patterson ran the track for over 40 years from 1946, followed by Major Charles Enderby — the founder’s great-grandson — from 1990 to 2016. In 2016 the course was sold to Hexham and Northern Marts, a local Northumberland livestock-mart company, with Enderby staying on as a consultant; ownership sits there today, not with Jockey Club Racecourses or Arena Racing Company (Hexham’s only ARC connection is a shared 2016 broadcasting venture, The Racing Partnership, a media deal rather than an ownership stake). In June 2025, Queen Camilla opened a new grandstand named in her honour — the Queen Camilla Stand — calling Hexham “the most beautiful racecourse” and referencing the late Queen Elizabeth II’s horse No Trumps, a Hexham winner in 2019.

Beyond its historic feature, Hexham runs no Listed or Graded race — the card is built from handicaps, novice and maiden hurdles and chases, and a strong run of hunter and conditional jockeys’ races. That honesty matters more than manufactured prestige: this is a genuine regional jumps track, not a black-type venue. Two future stars had early moments here — One Man and Red Marauder, both of whom went on to become notable National Hunt performers, are widely reported to have taken their hurdling debuts at Hexham in the 1990s.

Hexham carries one of the best-documented and strongest front-running biases in British jumps racing. Since 2010, chase leaders have gone on to win at an actual/expected (A/E) index of 1.51 against market expectation, with prominent racers close behind at 1.04 — while a separate cut of the data shows front-runners winning at a 35.3% strike rate (Impact Value 2.96) against held-up horses managing an Impact Value of just 0.29. The bias is present over hurdles too, but weaker (A/E 1.13). It’s a direct consequence of the course’s defining feature: the steep, sustained uphill finish punishes horses attempting to make up ground late, rewarding those already travelling prominently before the climb begins.

The edge softens at longer trips and on softer going, particularly over hurdles — one cut of 2m4f handicap hurdles on soft ground showed front-runners managing barely 3% of wins, a genuine reversal in a smaller sample. Treat the headline chase bias as the reliable signal and the softer/longer exceptions as real but secondary nuance.