2013 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Ante Post Betting Tips Part 2

He’s not exactly looked the finish project despite always finding the line in his four career efforts. His jumping is not fluent all the time, but you get the idea that this is just one of those horses that knows how to find the line. He tends to take a keen hold and race up front so look for him to try to outrun the rest of them and stay on nicely at the finish. 

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One does have to wonder whether this might be too much of an ask for him - to step up against high-quality graded winners for the first time. The bookmakers have him floating as a second favourite to Jezki, with a price in the range of 8/1 to around 10/1. 

River Maigue is the other contender priced around Puffin Billy and he still has a lot of room to move forward. His recent scores haven’t really been the type you want to see before backing a contender to win the Supreme Novices. He finished second behind Dodging Bullets at Cheltenham back in November so remains only graded stakes placed. 

Nicky Henderson is keen on him but it will be telling to see where Barry Geraghty gets placed for this race. The margin in his last victory was a quality seven lengths but, again, it was only a 7K contest at Kempton.  He won a few flat races running from the rear of the field but has shown a tendency to race up front in his latest efforts. Look for him to go in with some interesting tactics, as this one may be run very quickly and his connections may want their trip to contrast that. 

Dodging Bullets looks to be one of the more interesting runners in this one as he’s a five-year-old son of Dubawi with some solid runs over the flat. He finished a respectable fourth in the JCB Triumph Hurdle last year when sent off at 20/1 and he’s also notched up two scores at Cheltenham earlier this year. He looks to be the one to tick the “horses for courses” box and coming out of Paul Nicholls yard is never going to hurt your chances of taking money, either. 

He was only able to muster third in the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle but that came against some high quality contenders who will be pointing towards stronger races than the Supreme Novices Hurdle. The 3/7 isn’t nearly as bad as it may look on paper and it has always taken very good horses to beat this one.