The opening race of the Cheltenham Festival 2017 is a highly anticipated affair as it pits the best novices in the game against one another. Punters are so geared up for the Cheltenham Festival betting by this point, that all of the anticipation over the days to come from Prestbury Park are unleashed in this famous race and the runners thrive off the electric atmosphere that comes along with this curtain raiser.
So the action all starts on March 14th and it is the Willie Mullins’ trained Melon who has the bookmaker running scared in the Supreme Novices Hurdle 2017 betting. The impressive youngster landed a 10 length victory in his maiden hurdle back in January, which has been his only outing of the season. So he has been kept under wraps, but when he was unleashed he delivered a pretty commanding win. There has been a tremendous amount of hype about Melon and his future and he can set the ball rolling with a victory in the Supreme Novices, a race that Willie Mullins has dominated for the last five years.
Melon has come in from 5/1 to a price of 4/1 with bookmaker Coral but as usual, the Supreme Novices field is stacked to the rafters with exciting young talent and it’s worth looking at the main challengers coming in here. Neon Wolf was nothing less than imperious at the Rossington Maiden Hurdle, taking a win by 10 lengths and showed an impressive turn of foot in the race of the line after clearing the last jump.
If the ground is on the softer side for the Supreme Novices Hurdle 2017 then Neon Wolf could have a huge impact, because he will have an advantage of the other main contenders who are more suited to good ground. So don’t dismiss him if the conditions are right and if you are lucky enough to shop around and snap him up at as big of a price of 6/1 like 888Sport have him at the time of writing, that’s value right there for your Supreme Novices’ betting.
Moon Racer is around the same 6/1 mark with Coral and has more than enough talent to sweep the field in this one. He is the oldest entrant in the Supreme Novices field this year but he has form over the rest of the field here. Moon Racer collected the Champion Bumper a couple of years ago but was held back because of injury since then but he ground out a win over Ballandy in his maiden outing over the jumps back in September and that could be a good indicator for his chances and again at a 6/1 price he looks value too.
Ballyandy has been shortening in price after win at the Betfair Handicap Hurdle, but he is lacking value here and after the loss to Moon Racer at Cheltenham and had last year’s Champion Bumper winner not lost to Messire Des Obeaux over a longer trip, he would have been set up for the Neptune instead of this. He should challenge enough for a top three, but not value enough to usurp the presence of the Melon at the head of the market.
Crack Mome and Cilaos Emery have both had setbacks in their preparations for the Supreme Novices 2017 while Mullins will have Bunk Off Early in the race as a massively interesting proposition. He is playing second fiddle of course to Melon and while he was edged in the Deloitte Hurdle by Bacardys, the youngster has tremendous speed under his belt and has landed a win over the hurdles this year. He is one of those around the 6/1 mark which offers great opposition to Melon.
Supreme Novices Hurdle 2017 Odds
Melon 4/1, Ballyandy 5/1, Moon Racer 6/1, Neon Wolf 6/1, Bunk Off Early 7/1, Move With The Times 9/1, Charli Parcs 14/1, Finians Oscar 14/1, River Wylder 14/1, Airlie Beach 16/1,
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Supreme Novices Hurdle 2017 Prediction
Melon is the stand out name in this one, and at 4/1 to deliver the win, there is value in that and there’s no reason to abandon him because of lack of activity this season, there have been Supreme winners who have come through with minimal activity over the season. That’s not an issue, but behind him we are going to go with the chances of Moon Racer who has the class and form to make an impact at the race. He probably has the best chance of all in sticking in there to lay down a challenge to the favourite.
