The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is always the first race on the opening day of Cheltenham and it is one of the Festival’s most anticipated contests - probably because the start of it is met with one almighty roar!
This contest has been running since 1946, although in its infancy it was called the Gloucestershire Hurdle and was split into divisions until 1972.
The race is the most prestigious prize of the season for 2m novice hurdlers and has been the launch pad for many great horses over the years. Cheltenham Day 1 tips tend to focus primarily on this race and the Champion Hurdle.
Winners have included dual Champion Hurdle winner Bula, Arkle and Champion Chase winner Flyingbolt, two-time Champion Chase hero Altior and Gold Cup and Grand National winner L’Escargot, to name but a few.
Here are 5 of our favourites from over the decades:
Brave Inca (2004)
Brave Inca and War Of Attrition served up a battle royal in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2004 with both horses going on to much greater things.
Brave Inca, who just prevailed by a head, went on to win the 2006 Champion Hurdle, with War Of Attrition taking the Gold Cup in the very same season.
He was at the top of his game between 2004 and 2006. Other big races that he won included the December Festival Hurdle, the Punchestown Champion Hurdle, the Deloitte Novice Hurdle, the Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle and the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle.
Things however began to go wrong for him, and after a string of injuries in 2011 he came back to shock the National Hunt racing fraternity by winning the Irish Champion Hurdle as an 11-year-old.
Colm Murphy, who trained Brave Inca said: “It’s hard to believe in a Supreme Novices’ that you have a future Champion Hurdle winner and a future Gold Cup winner jumping the last together. At the time you don’t appreciate it as much, but looking back I certainly do now.”
Flyingbolt (1964)
Flyingbolt won his first ten National Hunt races, including a division of the Gloucestershire Hurdle (today's Supreme Novices') at the 1964 Cheltenham Festival, a year synonymous with the Arkle-Mill House Gold Cup.
The following season, Flyingbolt was even more devastating as a novice chaser, his five out of five record included an effortless win at Cheltenham.
He also won the Irish Grand National, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Thyestes Chase, the Arkle Challenge Trophy, the Massey Ferguson Gold Cup, the Black & White Whisky Gold Cup and the Irish Champion Hurdle.
Bula (1970)
Bula was undefeated in his first thirteen races during two National Hunt seasons a record which stood for over forty years. He scored in the Supreme in 1970, before Champion Hurdle victories in 1971 and 1972.
His other victories included the Osborne Hurdle, the Benson & Hedges Handicap Hurdle, the Mill House Hurdle, the Kingwell Hurdle, the Welsh Champion Hurdle, the Cheltenham Trial Hurdle, the Black and White Whiskey Gold Cup, the Fairlawne Chase and the Gainsborough Chase. Several of these races he won more than once.
The Fred Winter-trained gelding suffered a bad fall in the 1977 Cheltenham Champion Chase and damaged his shoulder muscles. Unfortunately he failed to make a full recovery and Bula was put to sleep in May of that year.
L’Escargot (1968)
Trained by Dan Moore and owned by Raymond Guest, L’Escargot won the Supreme Novices’ in 1968 and went on to be remembered for winning many other high profile races in an illustrious career.
He was a real all-rounder, starting off as a youngster and taking the Gloucestershire Hurdle (Supreme), then being a classy enough horse to win two Cheltenham Gold Cups, and durable enough one to be placed in two Grand Nationals before winning it in 1975.
Naturally he is renowned for bringing Red Rum’s winning Grand National run to an end, beating the people’s favourite by 15 lengths on the day- a victory that very nearly didn’t happen at all as L’Escargot nearly tipped up on the first circuit.
Afterwards jockey Tommy Carberry said “I thought he was in better shape today than ever before. Last year when second he was up against a very good horse on the day.
"This time just before the second Becher’s Red Rum seemed to be going more easily than mine. And from Valentines I was going the better and coming back onto the racecourse with two to jump Brian Fletcher shouted to me ‘well done – you’ve won’”.
L’Escargot was even inducted into the U.S National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, being named the American Champion Steeplechase Horse, in 1969.
Altior (2016)
Some have hailed the 2016 Supreme Novices’ hurdle as one of the greatest line-ups since the turn of the millennium and they’re probably not far wrong.
14 runners contested the race that year with many of them going on to become household names as well as the winner.
First place went to the mighty Altior who went on to be unbeaten in 15 races over obstacles and who is again looking toward another victory at the Festival in 2020.
Second was Min, who has gone on to take Grade 1 and 2 races convincingly. Third was Buveur D'Air who became a dual Champion Hurdle winner. Fifth was the Kim Bailey-trained Charbel who was a decisive winner of the Peterborough Chase.
Seventh was Supasundae who has been a wonderful servant to Jessica Harrington, winning a whole host of top class hurdling prizes and continuing to compete at the top level.
Even Petit Mouchoir & Bellshill were in the 2016 Supreme filed and they have also tasted plenty of success themselves.
Altior’s four wins at The Festival for Nicky Henderson include back-to-back victories in 2018 and 2019 in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and he is back to defend his title once more in 2020.
Will the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle continue its legacy of continually producing future champions? The latest horse racing betting odds are up ahead of the 2020 Cheltenham Festival.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Amr Nabil / AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 3rd March 2020
