Where To Bet on Supreme Novices' Hurdle

Supreme Novices' Hurdle 2027: Cheltenham Festival Betting Preview
The Cheltenham Roar Returns as the Festival Curtain-Raiser Comes Round Again

Tuesday, 16 March 2027 | Cheltenham Racecourse, Prestbury Park, Gloucestershire
Grade 1 | 2 Miles 1/2 Furlong | Old Course | 8 Hurdles

Nothing in jump racing quite matches the noise that erupts when the starter drops the flag for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle. It is the opening act of the Cheltenham Festival, the signal that four days of the best National Hunt action on the planet is officially underway, and the famous Cheltenham Roar is the soundtrack. Run in memory of Michael O'Sullivan, it is traditionally a proper contest between battle-hardened novices from some of the biggest yards in Britain and Ireland, and the trials that shape it run through the winter on both sides of the Irish Sea.

2026 Result: Old Park Star Lands the Opener
Tuesday, 10 March 2026: Old Park Star justified favouritism at 15/8 for Nicky Henderson and Nico de Boinville, beating Sober Glory (9/2, Philip Hobbs and Johnson White, ridden by Ben Jones) by a length and a half, with Mydaddypaddy (6/1, Dan Skelton) a nose further back in third. Eleven ran on good to soft ground. Twelve months earlier Kopek Des Bordes had won for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend at 4/6, making it eight wins in the race for Closutton. In 2026 Mullins did not have a clear number one for the opener, and the race went to the Henderson-trained six-year-old who had headed the market through the British trials circuit.

Old Park Star: The Market Leader Who Delivered
Time Stamp: February 14, 2026
2026 ante-post odds, shown for the record (not current prices)
Source: Bet365

Old Park Star 3.00 | Talk The Talk 4.50 | El Cairos 6.50 | Mydaddypaddy 13.00 | Idaho Sun 17.00 | Mossy Fen Road 17.00 | Ballyfad 21.00

Old Park Star went into the 2026 race at the head of affairs, and the numbers backed up the position. He was three from three over hurdles after joining Henderson from Paul Nicholls, with wins at Kempton, Cheltenham, and then a demolition job in the Sky Bet Supreme Trial at Haydock in January that had the racing world sitting up. That Haydock performance, where he put 18 lengths between himself and Hurricane Pat, earned him a Timeform rating of 153p, placing him 5lb clear of any other novice hurdler in Britain or Ireland.

The profile was strikingly similar to some of Henderson's previous Supreme winners. Altior, Shishkin, and Constitution Hill all came into this race as polished jumpers with bags of natural speed and the ability to travel strongly through a big-field Grade 1. De Boinville had ridden three of Henderson's Supreme winners before, including Shishkin and Constitution Hill, and described Old Park Star's turn of foot as "devastating" after the Haydock romp.

The doubts before the race were fair ones. Old Park Star had not run in any of the traditional key trials on the Irish circuit, his form had come against British opposition, and Jonbon had won the same Haydock trial in 2022 before being beaten 22 lengths by Constitution Hill in the Supreme. He had also not run on genuinely testing going. In the event the ground was good to soft, and he answered the Cheltenham hill question on the day.

Talk The Talk: Ireland's Strongest Card

If the Dublin Racing Festival is the traditional dress rehearsal for Cheltenham, then Talk The Talk looked to have announced himself. Joseph O'Brien's five-year-old took the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown in early February 2026, a Grade 1 that has produced Supreme winners including Kopek Des Bordes, Appreciate It, Klassical Dream, Vautour, and Champagne Fever. JJ Slevin rode him stone cold from the back, and he got his head in front by a short head from Ballyfad, with King Rasko Grey a further neck back in third.

O'Brien chose the Supreme over the longer Turners Novices' Hurdle, reasoning that the likely fast pace would suit Talk The Talk's style of racing. The worry was his jumping: he had come down at the last when leading the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas. At Cheltenham he went off at 6/1, was outpaced before two out and finished seventh, rallying after the last without getting near the leaders.

El Cairos: Raw Talent, Rough Edges

Gordon Elliott's six-year-old was the most talked-about horse in the 2026 race who had done the least to prove it on the racecourse. El Cairos ran fifth in the 2025 Champion Bumper when trained by Gary Moore, then changed hands for £410,000 at David Maxwell's dispersal sale and joined Elliott. He fell at the final flight on his hurdling debut at Leopardstown on Boxing Day when looking the winner, then won a maiden hurdle at Thurles at 1/5, again blundering at the last. Elliott had won the race before with Labaik, so he was no stranger to managing enigmatic types. El Cairos went off at 15/2 and finished fifth, in touch for much of the race but never dangerous.

The Each-Way Market

Below the top three, there were several interesting horses at bigger prices in 2026.

Mydaddypaddy (Dan Skelton, 13.00 in February) was the early-season market leader after two bloodless victories at Carlisle and Haydock. The Grade 1 Formby at Aintree over Christmas was supposed to be the coronation, but he was beaten three and a quarter lengths by Idaho Sun in a race where only five of the eight hurdles were jumped due to low sun. His backers argued that the real Mydaddypaddy was the one demolishing fields in the autumn, and he went some way to proving it, finishing third at 6/1, beaten a length and a half and a nose.

Idaho Sun (Harry Fry, 17.00 in February) won that Grade 1 Formby and had three wins from three over hurdles that season. He had been sixth in the 2025 Champion Bumper, so he had Cheltenham experience, but the question was always whether the omitted hurdles at Aintree had flattered him.
Ballyfad (Gordon Elliott, 21.00 in February) chased Talk The Talk home at the Dublin Racing Festival and had won three of his four starts that season, staying on strongly up the Leopardstown straight.

Lessons for the 2027 Supreme

Old Park Star's win showed that the market can get this race right when a clear form horse turns up fit and well, but it remains a race that regularly throws up surprises. Sober Glory, second at 9/2, was not among the leading names in the February market, and the Irish trial winner finished well beaten. With a big field likely to go hard from the off on the Old Course, pace and jumping accuracy are critical.

The trends that pointed to Old Park Star are worth carrying forward: look for a horse that won last time out, has been rated 144 or higher, and has run within the last 81 days. Old Park Star fitted that profile cleanly. Horses whose only recent win came in a maiden hurdle, as with El Cairos, have tended to fall short. The Dublin Racing Festival and the main British trials at Haydock, Kempton and Cheltenham in the winter before the Festival remain the races to watch when the 2027 picture takes shape.

2026 Supreme Novices' Hurdle Result
1st Old Park Star (15/8f) - N. Henderson / Nico de Boinville
2nd Sober Glory (9/2) - P. Hobbs and J. White / Ben Jones
3rd Mydaddypaddy (6/1) - D. Skelton / Harry Skelton
11 ran | Distances: 1 1/2l, nose | Time: 3m 51.36s

2025 Supreme Novices' Hurdle Result
1st Kopek Des Bordes (4/6f) - W.P. Mullins / Paul Townend
2nd William Munny (8/1) - Barry Connell / Sean Flanagan
3rd Romeo Coolio (9/2) - Gordon Elliott / Jack Kennedy
11 ran | Distances: 1 3/4l, 5 1/2l | Time: 3m 52.04s

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