Cheltenham Festival 2025: Antepost Reaction To Grade 1 Novice Hurdle Entries

News came at noon on Tuesday 22nd January of the entries for the Grade One hurdle events at the Cheltenham Festival 2025.

Due to their open nature, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Turners Novices’ Hurdle, Triumph Hurdle and Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle are always widely anticipated antepost betting events for punters, especially amongst those who regularly bet on horse racing, hoping to beat the book with their early Cheltenham fancies.

Supreme Novices Hurdle Reaction

The favourite for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle this year is the highly-touted five-year-old French import, Salvator Mundi (7/2).

Trained by the legendary Willie Mullins and owned by Joe and Marie Donnelly, he has captured the imagination of punters and pundits alike, mainly because of his close proximity to Sir Gino at Auteuil when they were both fresh-faced three-year-olds.

Curiously his winning performance in the Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown has been crabbed in many quarters, with many race readers saying it was the lowest performance of any of Willie Mullins’ previous 11 winners of the race.

Punters are still keeping their faith in him however and after the entries were announced Salvator Mundi has remained steady in the market.

The price of Romeo Coolio (6/1) has shortened however in recent weeks after being available at 10/1 at the turn of the year.

His nine-length victory in the Grade One Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown has understandably led to his supporters following him in to his March engagement.

Turners Novices Hurdle Reaction

Confidence around The New Lion (9/4) being able to land the Turners’ is still growing, with his odds being trimmed by our traders after sustained interest yesterday.

The New Lion’s first run in the silks of his new owner JP McManus could well be a winning one and punters are keen to get stuck in.

JP’s “second-string” may well upset the Skelton party though, with Willie Mullins’ Kaid d’Authie (8/1) looking like another shrewd French purchase.

Triumph Hurdle Reaction

The buzz around Lulamba’s (5/4) chances  in the Triumph Hurdle are hard to ignore. This young star, trained by the ever-impressive Nicky Henderson was cut to 6-4 for this race after a stylish British debut at Ascot, then was trimmed again to 5/4 after the entry stage on Tuesday.

The weight of money for the four-year-old is increasing day by day as the Festival approaches and punters appear to be rather taken by these French imports in general this season.

Other market shifters in the Triumph are East India Dock (5/1) who runs in a Trial this weekend, plus Sainte Lucie (7/1) – another impressive Auteuil graduate.

Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle

Even after the entry stage the head of the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle market remains wide up with The Yellow Clay, Final Demand and The Big Westerner all hovering around the 6/1 to 8/1 bracket, whilst the rest of the potential field is priced up at 16/1 bar.

Challow Hurdle runner-up Wendigo (16/1) may have been overshadowed by The New Lion, but a wet Festival would see his current Cheltenham odds for this race disappear in a flash.