2017 Supreme Novices Hurdle PT 1

Usually by this point in the year, the ante post market has some upstart hot favourite for the Supreme Novices who is set to be the next greatest thing since bread came sliced but, up to this point at least, we haven't seen that happen as of yet. In fact, this year's contest appears to be one of the most intriguing in quite a while from a betting perspective and there is absolutely every chance that one of the most widely-anticipated contests of the entirety of the festival season could wind up being a real boon to a few bankrolls.

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE BET WITH WILLIAM HILL!

Right now there is a massive influx of competitors who are all trading anywhere from 12/1 to 20/1 with various bookmakers and you'll seriously have to sort through nearly a dozen of those contenders – and that's before you even get down to the stronger fancies who are trading well below that price at the time of this writing.

David Pipe's eight-year-old Moon Racer appears to be getting the distinct edge from the bookmakers and looms as the favourite right now. You'll find him priced as a general 5/1 to build on his 2016 Champion Bumper success at last year's festival when sent off as the 9/2 betting favourite. He went on to put in a good shift after that at Punchestown a couple of weeks later but came up short against the likes of Blow By Blow.

It's worth noting that the loss came without his usual jockey Tom Scudamore.

He has been out twice so far this year and he looks like he has been going from strength to strength – capturing a nice score over Ballyandy in his rules race over proper fences. He scored by three quarters of a length as the 5/6 favourite and them upped the ante coming out after that as the 9/4 winner of the Supreme Novices Trial at Cheltenham back in mid-November.