2013 Cheltenham Festival Tips for the Neptune Novices Hurdle

The 2013 Neptune Novices’ Hurdle isn’t usually where you see the absolute top echelon of young National Hunt talent, but it’s usually a race where you can spot some impressive winners at big prices. Much more open than the over-hyped and over-bet Supreme Novices’, a big field is looming ahead of this one and there are a number of very plausible winners. 

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Pont Alexandre is the current betting favourite and the bookmakers have him floated around 11/4 after being taken in from 5/1 a few months back. The Willy Mullins-trained jumper is undefeated so far and has won in graded contests in both of his efforts this year - triumphing by a considerable margin in his native Ireland. His victories came with margins of 13L and 11L against fields of 8 and 5. 

In many ways, Pont Alexandre looks to still be finding his feet and, though he didn’t look entirely fluent through the entire race last time, you can expect him to kick on and put together something good here for this one. 

As is usual with many novice hurdle contests, many of these jumpers are still developing so seeing a longer odds selection suddenly take a big step forward isn’t exactly unheard of. Pont Alexandre will be Ruby Walsh’s choice for this race and that’s certain to lend credibility to his claims. You do have to wonder just how much he was tested in both of his races as not many of the other entrants have gone on to do a huge amount yet. 

The New One looks to be the main challenger to Pont Alexandre’s quest to conquer the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle. Into 9/2 from a 6/1 price, he was last seen beaten by just a quarter-length margin by Fisher’s Cross in a Novice Hurdle effort at Cheltenham. He was sent off at 4/5 on the day and that’s going to factor into his price on the day as he was headed on the run-in. 

Prior to that contest, he had won four races in a row, including a Grade 2 effort at Warwick. Expect Sam Twiston-Davies in the irons for this one.