At the last six Cheltenham Festivals there have been 24 Non-Novice Handicap Hurdles and 586 runners...
24/24 (winners) ran in a Hurdle race LTO (Those that didn’t run in a Hurdle race LTO are 0/63, 11p)
Those that ran in a race worth 75k+ to the winner LTO are 0/51, 7p
Those that ran in a race worth LESS than 8k to the winner are 0/78, 8p
(so ideally you want something that ran in a Hurdle race worth more than 8k but less than 75k LTO)
23/24 had 5 or less Handicap Hurdle starts (Those with 6 or more Handicap Hurdle starts are 1/179, 16p)
23/24 had 0-1 previous Handicap Hurdle wins (Those with 2+ Handicap Hurdle wins are 1/168, 21p || 3+ Handicap Hurdle wins are 0/79, 8p)
23/24 were 2lbs+ higher than their last winning mark (those that were not are 1/57 | 1.75% S/R)
23/24 ran at C3 level+ LTO (Those that ran a C4 level or below LTO are 1/54, 8p)
23/24 had 18 or less career starts (Those with 19+ career starts are 1/158 | 0.5% S/R)
22/24 had 9 or less Hurdle starts (Those with 10+ Hurdle starts are 2/222, 17p)
22/24 recorded a placed effort on one of their last three starts (those that hadn't are 2/89 | 2% S/R)
21/22 were ridden by a jockey WITHOUT a claim (Claiming jockeys are 3/125 | 2.5% S/R)
Claimers with a claim of 5lbs+ are 1/73 | 1% S/R – 6 places
Only 3/24 started as an outright FAVOURITE last time out (only 4/24 started as fav or joint/co fav)