Founder & Editor · Last reviewed 2026-09-16
Introduction
There is no Taunton Festival, and there is no Donn McClean Gold Cup. This page described both as fact: a multi-day meeting held every January or February, with a handicap chase named after Donn McClean as its centrepiece. Neither exists. Taunton's own official fixture list names no multi-day festival anywhere in its programme, no racecard anywhere carries a Donn McClean Gold Cup, and no source connects the journalist Donn McClean's name to a race at this course or any other.
It is worth setting out plainly how this happened. Donn McClean is a real person: an Irish racing journalist and Racing TV pundit who writes Gold Cup preview columns for outlets including Sporting Life and The Irish Field. He has no sponsorship link or naming connection to Taunton. The name almost certainly began as a byline on a preview article, scraped without its context, and was mistaken for a race title. From there, an entire "Festival" was built to hold it: a January or February date, a two or three day format, and a supporting cast of invented trainer records and betting trends, none of which had a race to be true of.
Taunton's real feature race is the Byerley Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle: a Listed contest (a GBB Race) for mares only, run over approximately two miles and half a furlong every 30 December, first staged in 2012. It is a hurdle, not a chase, and it has nothing to do with January or February. The raceday it sits on is currently branded the BoyleSports New Year Raceday, a single afternoon, not a multi-day meeting. Checked directly against Taunton's own fixture list in September 2026, the word "Festival" appears exactly once across the entire season, as marketing flavour text on an unrelated single-day fixture in mid-March (the "DragonBet Festival Fever Raceday"), which has no connection to the Byerley Stud race and predates nothing.
Taunton itself is real enough: Somerset's only National Hunt racecourse, at Orchard Portman, with a flat, right-handed circuit that has long made it a proving ground for young horses from the West Country yards.
This guide covers what is actually known of the Byerley Stud race's short history, the course and conditions it is run under, and betting angles for the fixture; the complete guide sets out Taunton's full fixture list beyond this one race, and the day out guide covers travel and what to expect on the day.
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History
We are not publishing the history that used to stand here. It described a race "developed" through the 1970s and 1980s from a 1950s predecessor, and a Festival that had "grown over the years." None of that can belong to Taunton's real feature race: the Byerley Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle was first run only in 2012, so there is no decades-long story to tell yet, invented or otherwise.
What the sources support
The race carries Listed status and GBB Race classification, confirmed on dated results and racecards for its 2023, 2024 and 2025 runnings. It is run over approximately two miles and half a furlong, for mares only, and it has been staged every 30 December since its introduction. One trade source describes it as "the highlight of the race season at Taunton", which lines up with it being the only Listed race the course currently stages, though we hold no evidence it has ever been marketed as a "festival" or paired with any multi-day meeting.
A young race, not an old one
Because the Byerley Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle is little more than a decade old, its history is still being written rather than looked back on. What we can say is narrower than what the old pages claimed, but it is what the sources actually support: an annual Listed fixture, run on the same date each year, that has grown into the clearest marker of quality on Taunton's card. For the course's own much longer story, going back to 1927, see the history of Taunton Racecourse.
The Course & Conditions
The Byerley Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle is run on Taunton's flat, right-handed circuit, over approximately two miles and half a furlong: a sprint by staying-chase standards, and a different test entirely from the "two miles and four furlongs or beyond" trip our pages previously invented for the race that did not exist.
The Track
Taunton's oval is flat and fair, with gentle bends and none of the drop fences or sharp turns that complicate form-reading at courses like Cheltenham or Exeter. Over hurdles, that suits a mare who travels and jumps fluently: she is rarely undone by the terrain here, because there is very little terrain to be undone by.
Going
The race falls on 30 December, deep in the Somerset winter, so the ground is rarely anything better than good to soft and is frequently soft or heavy. The clay subsoil at Orchard Portman holds water, and a wet December can leave the going testing well into the new year. Check the going report on the course website close to the day, since conditions here can shift quickly after rain.
Conditions
This is a conditions race for mares only, restricted to novices (horses yet to win a hurdle race at the start of the season), not a handicap. That means the weights are set by the published conditions rather than an official handicapper, and the form of the field is generally more straightforward to assess than in an open handicap. For the wider picture of Taunton's layout, see the complete guide.
Betting Angles & Trends
The betting angles that used to stand on this page, including a specific each-way price range and a claim about which trainers dominate the race, were built for a handicap chase that never existed. They are removed rather than carried over, because nothing about them was measured against the Byerley Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle itself.
Course Form
Course form is a reasonable starting point at Taunton generally: the track is flat and fair, so a mare who has shown she handles the circuit before has one fewer question to answer. The betting guide covers course form at Taunton in more depth.
Going
The race falls on 30 December, when the Somerset clay is typically at its wettest. Favour form on soft or heavy ground over a mare whose only wins have come on a sound surface, and check the going report on the day rather than relying on the forecast.
A Small, Specific Field
Because entry is restricted to novice mares, the field for this race is smaller and more specialised than a typical Taunton handicap. That cuts both ways for betting purposes: there is less depth to assess, but also less scope for a random result. Treat the conditions-race format as a reason to trust the form in front of you rather than to look for a hidden angle that is not there.
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The History of Taunton Racecourse
Nearly 100 years of racing at Taunton — from 1927 to West Country jumping at the foot of the Quantocks.
Read moreNovice Chases at Taunton Racecourse
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Rooster Booster at Taunton: The Complete Story
Rooster Booster won his first race at Taunton in January 2000 and went on to become the 2003 Champion Hurdler — a West Country story with a Cheltenham ending.
Read morePhotos on this page are used under Creative Commons licences. Titles, sources and licence links for each one are on our image credits page.
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