Supreme Novices' Hurdle Entries: Facile Vega tops a list of 67 entries for Cheltenham opener
Unbeaten hurdler and last year's Champion Bumper winner Facile Vega is the star attraction among a whopping 67 horses entered for the 2023 Supreme Novices' Hurdle, which is the traditional Cheltenham Festival curtain-raiser on Tuesday 14th March, 2023. We take a look at the entries for the Grade 1 opener here...
A mightily-impressive three-and-three quarter length winner of the Champion Bumper at last season's Cheltenham Festival, Facile Vega is a red-hot odds-on favourite to land festival glory once again for Willie Mullins, and the son of six-times festival winner Quevega is the star attraction among 67 horses entered for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.
The traditional curtain-raiser to the 'Greatest Show On Turf', the Supreme Novices' Hurdle is one of the marquee races of the entire week with some stars of the National Hunt world having etched their name on the illustrious roll of honour and Facile Vega is well fancied to bag Grade 1 glory on day one of the meeting. Unbeaten in six starts under Rules, Facile Vega has made a serene switch to the hurdling sphere as having cruised to glory on his first start over timber he then bounded to Grade 1 glory at Leopardstown over the Christmas period.
Already a short-priced jolly for the Supreme on March 14, Facile Vega will be attempting to following in the footsteps of her mother Quevega, who sparkled at Prestbury Park on an array of occasions and her star son is likely to be extremely tough to beat.
Barry Connnell's Marine Nationale is the next in the betting around the 5/1 mark and he's another unbeaten star that jumps out of the list of entries. A brace of bumper wins have been followed by two wins over hurdles, and his last success came in the Grade 1 Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown, where he got the better of Irish Point, who also holds an entry for Gordon Elliott here.
There's no doubting that the Mullins operation will have a potential first class team of novice hurdlers heading to Cheltenham, but with the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle and Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle alternative options then it's unknown where each Closutton inmate will run. Impaire Et Passe is a prominent figure in the betting and was a fine Grade 2 winner of the Moscow Flyer at Punchestown in January and could figure, while last season's Fred Winter runner-up Gaelic Warrior is another eye-catching entry from the Mullins team who have 16 entries in total for this event.
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20%
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7.4%
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7.7%
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5.9%
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2.8%
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4.8%
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3.8%
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3
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Charlie Longsdon's Rare Edition could well be one of the primary shots fired by the UK trainers and that unbeaten six-year-old showed when storming to victory at Kempton Park on Boxing Day that he could shape into a smart novice hurdler this season, and the 16/1 chance could be a potential challenger come the day of the race.
Former top class Flat performer High Definition, who was once regarded as a potential Derby contender at Epsom, made a winning debut over hurdles for Joseph O'Brien and that contender is a 16/1 chance in the ante-post betting and has to be respected, while the Paul Nicholls-trained Tahmuras (10/1) is another top notch star that catches the eye. Last seen bounding to an impressive win in the Grade 1 Tolworth Novices' Hurdle at Sandown Park, the Ditcheat raider will need to kick on from that success here, but has to be respected.
With several horses holding multiple entries in this and the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle, it will be interesting to see who features come race day, but one thing appears to be certain with the bookmakers that Facile Vega is most certainly the one to beat.
2023 Supreme Novices' Hurdle Entries
- Absolute Notions
- Aime Desjy
- American Mike
- Amir Kabir
- Arctic Bresil
- Atlanta Brave
- Authorised Speed
- Bialystok
- Champ Kiely
- Chasing Fire
- Colonel Harry
- Dark Raven
- Diverge
- Doctor Bravo
- Doyen Star
- Facile Vega
- Father of Jazz
- Fennor Cross
- Gaelic Warrior
- Givega
- Golden Rules
- Hansard
- Hey Johnny
- High Definition
- Horantzau d'Airy
- Houlanbatordechais
- Hullnback
- Hunters Yarn
- Il Etait Temps
- Imagine
- Impaire Et Passe
- In Excess
- Inneston
- Inthepocket
- Irish Point
- Itswhatunitesus
- Ittack Blue
- Jet Powered
- Joe Dadancer
- L'Astroboy
- Landrake
- Luccia
- Marine Nationale
- Master Chewy
- Nemean Lion
- Out Of Office
- Palace Boy
- Parmenion
- Parramount
- Pembroke
- Persian Time
- Pikar
- Pistoletto
- Rare Edition
- Rayapour
- Rubaud
- Sa Fureur
- Scriptwriter
- Spirit of Legend
- Strong Leader
- Tactical Move
- Tahmuras
- Teddy Blue
- The Big Doyen
- Thecompanysergeant
- Toothless
- Viva Devito