Cheltenham Festival tips: Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle dark horses

It’s fair to say Salvator Mundi’s Punchestown victory in the Sky Bet Club Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle divided opinion.

Some would argue the form is nowhere near good enough to win at the Cheltenham Festival in March, Timeform’s Dan Barber going as far as to say the five-year-old has “got a stone to find with the leader in the division (that being Romeo Coolio)." One post I clocked on X earlier in the week read something along the lines of: "...there has to be a better novice than that?!".

Others have suggested the fact that he still won the often-informative Grade 2 despite racing so keenly and jumping so sketchily merely underlines the horse's immense talent, with the prospect of considerable more improvement to come in just about every department.

The 2023 French form, when second to Sir Gino at Auteuil, is there for all to see in the book but Salvator Mundi has been cut to a general 7/2 for the Sky Bet Supreme and plenty of punters will inevitably be on the lookout for bigger-priced alternatives ahead of the Dublin Racing Festival when the whole novice hurdle division seems likely to become a good bit clearer.

So here are three horses to consider for those keen to seek out some value against the much-talked-about Salvator Mundi.

REDEMPTION DAY (Willie Mullins) – 66/1 for Sky Bet Supreme

Fighting fire with fire isn't always a great idea but if the Mullins-trained favourite is to be beaten then it could well be a Mullins representative doing the beating, such is his stranglehold on the majority of the best young jumping prospects, plus his fine Supreme record down the years.

Mullins is responsible for 10 of the 21 entries in Leopardstown’s Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle, the two-mile Grade 1 on the Sunday of the DRF, and it’s a race he’s won every year in the past decade bar Samcro’s odds-on triumph for Gordon Elliott in 2018.

Kaid d’Authie and Kopek Des Bordes head the market currently but would it be that much of a shock were Redemption Day to run here and live up to his name? He went from 12/1 right out to 66/1 for the Festival opener in one fell swoop following an even-money flop in a maiden hurdle on Boxing Day, but he’s just the sort of quirky customer capable of missing a sitter, only to follow it with a stunner.

He has some of the best bumper form going from a fairly lengthy period in that sphere which started with an odds-on win way back in December 2021, but it was only last May that he hammered The Yellow Clay in Grade 1 company at the Punchestown Festival, having also won at Fairyhouse in Easter.

The more recent hurdling debut run was obviously a major disappointment but the hood worn to such good effect last spring was missing that day which resulted in him racing freely and having nothing to offer late on. I’d expect much better when the headgear returns.

WATCH: Redemption Day beats The Yellow Clay in top-class bumper

IRANCY (Willie Mullins) – 33/1 for Sky Bet Supreme

Yes, we turn to Mullins yet again although Irancy holds no upcoming entries which can’t be seen as massive plus-point. Perhaps he’s just a fragile horse as there were 349 days between his promising hurdling debut third behind Ballyburn and Firefox, in what was clearly a well above-average Fairyhouse maiden, and the striking victory at Punchestown on November 15 earlier this season.

Sent off the 10/11 favourite and out in front under Mark Walsh from flagfall, Irancy floated over the good ground and jumped well in the main en route to a nine-length victory from Gavin Cromwell’s Will The Wise, who won a Punchestown maiden earlier this week.

The 24-length fourth has won a maiden subsequently too so there’s some substance to the form and JP McManus’s seven-year-old is a really exciting prospect if they’re able to keep him sound. Decent ground might be important to him so he's one to look out for in the spring wherever that me be.

WATCH: Irancy wins maiden hurdle in fine style at Punchestown

ROYAL INFANTRY (Dan Skelton) – 33/1 for Sky Bet Supreme

The one that’s staring us all in the face when it comes to big prices in the Sky Bet Supreme is The New Lion, who despite being campaigned over two and a half miles so far this season, will almost certainly be given the option of the Festival curtain-raiser as well as the Turners on day two.

If the ground happened to come up very soft, the Supreme would no doubt be given serious consideration as this is not a slow horse by any means – in fact if there’s one novice hurdler who could be capable of developing into a genuine Champion Hurdle horse next season then it’s probably him.

However, the Challow win shows he stays very well too and the Turners has also produced the odd Champion candidate down the years so connections may well stick to what seems to be plan-A, especially if the Skelton-trained Royal Infantry wins again this weekend (Sky Bet Supreme Trial, 1.55 Haydock).

He's raced five times under Rules and his only defeat so far came when eighth in last season's Champion Bumper but he clearly has natural speed and a fair chunk of class to boot based on the early-December Haydock win when seeing off a couple of promising four-year-olds in Crest Of Fortune and Circuit Breaker.

Versatile ground-wise and another slick jumper, he likes to race close to the pace and it wouldn't be a surprise if he fared a good deal better on his second visit if heading back to the Festival this time around.

WATCH: Royal Infantry saunters to victory at Haydock

Published at 0915 GMT on 16/01/25

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