Just think back to twelve months ago when Altior stomped his way to a commanding victory in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. It was an impressive run for the Nicky Henderson trained youngster who was only second favourite for the race despite having won all four of his seasonal outings before the Cheltenham Festival. Altior had been playing second fiddle to Min in the race, but Altior delivered such an impressive performance to stretch away to a seven length victory over his Irish adversary.
Now he is back against and doesn’t go in the Champion Hurdle as many had expected, instead Altior is looking like a banker in the Arkle on Tuesday, March 14th. So Henderson is taking his time with Altior, keeping him on the regular novice chasing track instead of skipping ahead to the Champion Hurdle and this is a horse who just seems to look more impressive every time that he steps out onto the course.
Altior heads to Cheltenham unbeaten and he has made things look so easy in his graded wins and you imagine that he is going to be handling the pressure easily enough back at Cheltenham. You can cast your eye over the rest of the Arkle field for his year’s renewal and you will be hard pushed to find anyone who could potentially outperform Altior on the day. There was a rumour that Min may come in for this one after taking a fancy to chasing but that hasn’t happened.
Instead Altior is a banker at 1/4 in the Arkle 2017 betting at Paddy Power with only Yorkhill coming in at single figures for the race. Last year Douvan was dominant in the Arkle and this renewal is likely to be a one sided for Altior as well in this race for first season chasers. Altior is just fluent and has a lighting turn of speed when he needs it. He cantered to a win at the Grade 1 Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown and at the Grade 2 Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase at Kempton at the back of December and then Nicky Henderson stepped things up for Altior by sending him out in The Game Spirit Chase at Newbury.
He was supposed to be given a run for his money by Fox Norton, who is a main challenger for the Champion Chase, and Dodging Bullets was in the field as well. But Altior turned up, totally unfazed and crushed the field by 13 lengths and that is the quality of the horse and why he is going to dominate the Arkle. If you are looking for a banker at the Cheltenham Festival then Altior is the one, he just never puts a foot wrong and improves all the time. There are bigger things ahead for this impressive charge and is likely to be a very popular winner.
Arkle Trophy 2017 Betting odds
Altior 1/4, Yorkhill 3/1, Charbel 10/1, Royal Caviar 14/1, Cloudy Dream 14/1, Some Plan 14/1, Top Notch 14/1, Forest Bihan 16/1, Le Parisien 16/1, Flying Angle 16/1, bar 33/1
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