Race 1 · Champion Day · Tuesday, 10 March 2026 · ~1:30pm
Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle
Live betting odds comparison for the race that opens Cheltenham Festival 2026 — 2m ½f · Grade 1 · Old Course
Live betting odds comparison for the race that opens Cheltenham Festival 2026 — 2m ½f · Grade 1 · Old Course
Compare the latest odds from leading bookmakers for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle. Updated regularly as we approach race day on 10 March 2026.
Leading racing analysts, journalists and tipsters share their views on the opening race of Cheltenham Festival 2026.
Ruby Walsh
"There's great strength in it. I'd want something bigger than 2/1."
Lydia Hislop
"There's plenty of pace on. It's going to be well run and that'll put some pressure on Talk The Talk's jumping."
Tony Mullins
"If you worry about anyone's jumping, El Cairos hasn't shown any indication that he learned anything from day one to day two. Leader d'Allier was massively impressive the last day at Punchestown. He's run eight times in his life and he's only been beaten twice – and that was twice he didn't wear a tongue-tie."
Johnny Dineen
"It's a deep race and at least one or more will be better than Old Park Star."
Sportingnews.com
Go with Old Park Star: "Old Park Star enters the fray as one of the early ante-post leaders based on recent dominant displays, with strong Irish and British form contesting the race."
GG.com
Matthew Sutcliffe tips Talk The Talk; Joe Napier goes for Old Park Star.
The Telegraph — Marcus Armytage
"I was hoping that we could keep Newbury novice winner Sober Glory a secret among ourselves but the clock gave it away – nearly two seconds quicker than Tutti Quanti, winner of the William Hill Hurdle. I was stood by the last and Sober Glory, who made all the running, was virtually the only horse to quicken up all day as he cruised to a 27-length win over a horse he had previously beaten by 12 lengths. The Supreme, his target, looks one of the most competitive races at the Festival. Nicky Henderson has Old Park Star, the favourite, but the Irish pair Talk The Talk and El Cairos look good, while Dan Skelton has Mydaddypaddy. But in a hot race I still like the Philip Hobbs-Johnson White trained Sober Glory – whatever the ground."
Racing Post
Tom Park, Maddy Playle, Nick Watts and Tommy Segal all back Old Park Star.
The Supreme Novices' Hurdle is the race that fires the starting gun on the entire Cheltenham Festival. As the first race of Champion Day, it immediately sets the tone for four days of the world's finest jump racing.
Run over two miles and half a furlong on Cheltenham's Old Course, the Supreme features eight flights of hurdles and the famous uphill finish to the line. It is the novice hurdle championship for horses who have demonstrated class and speed over the minimum hurdling trip — a test that demands both explosive pace and reliable jumping at full throttle.
The race has produced some of the finest novice hurdlers of recent decades. Names like Istabraq, Hors La Loi III, Brave Inca and Vautour have all launched glittering careers with Supreme victories, going on to become household names in National Hunt racing. Winning the Supreme is not merely a Festival result — it is a statement of intent for a career at the very highest level.
The Supreme Novices' Hurdle occupies the prestigious 1:30pm slot and attracts a capacity crowd of over 60,000 spectators for the first race of the Festival. The noise as the field jumps the first hurdle for the first time is one of the great sporting sounds in the British racing calendar.
The Supreme ante-post market opens as early as the previous summer. Significant moves in the weeks between January and March — especially following the Dublin Racing Festival in early February — are the most reliable guide to stable confidence and market direction.
The best preparatory routes to the Supreme include the Grade 1 novice hurdles at the Dublin Racing Festival, the Spring Juvenile Hurdle, and Grade 2 novice events at Leopardstown, Naas and Navan. British pointers to look for include strong novice hurdle performances at Ascot, Kempton and Sandown.
The Supreme market is often topped by a heavily-backed Irish favourite. Value frequently lies among British-trained runners at double-figure prices who have been dominant on the domestic scene. Each-way bets at 10/1+ in competitive renewals can be excellent value given the quality of fields the Supreme attracts.
The typical Supreme winner is a four or five-year-old with a strong bumper background, ideally having won at Listed or Grade level in that sphere before switching to hurdles. Horses from elite yards who have been saved and specifically prepared for Cheltenham — rather than having hard campaigns — hold a significant advantage.
The Supreme Novices' Hurdle has been the Festival's opening act since 1946, when it was first run under its current format. Over nearly eight decades, it has established itself as one of the most important novice hurdles in the entire calendar — a race whose winner invariably goes on to achieve significant things in the sport.
The dominance of Irish-trained horses in recent years reflects the extraordinary strength of the novice hurdle scene across the Irish Sea. Willie Mullins has trained an exceptional number of Supreme winners, regularly sending multiple runners to compete at the top of the market. Gordon Elliott has also figured prominently, making the race increasingly difficult for British trainers to win despite competitive representations from Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls.
The race has a strong statistical relationship with the Champion Hurdle. A significant proportion of horses who win the Supreme at four or five years old go on to compete — and win — the Champion Hurdle in subsequent seasons. When assessing the Supreme, it is worth identifying any runner who fits the mould of a genuine Champion Hurdle prospect for future seasons, as ante-post markets on that race open immediately after the Festival.