The Supreme Novices Hurdle is the first race of the Cheltenham Festival. This race is famous for the ‘Cheltenham Roar’, a loud cheer that can be heard as the horses get on their way to start off the festival.

The race is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race. Novice hurdlers that are aged four years or older can compete in the race. It is a 2 mile and 1/2 furlong race along the Old Course and has eight hurdles.

The race was first run in 1946 and the winner was Prince Rupert. Originally the race was called the Gloucestershire Hurdle and it had two or three separate divisions within it. As a result Irish trainer, Vincent O’Brien trained ten winners over eight years in the 1950s. The division format of the race stopped in 1972 and since then it has been run as one race.

The Supreme Novices Hurdle was originally known as the Lloyds Bank Champion Novices’ Hurdle from 1974. Waterford Crystal took over sponsorship in 1978 and changed it to its current name. Since then the race has had many sponsors but the name hasn’t changed. Currently, Sky Bet sponsors it.

This race is one of the lowest in terms of prize money for the festival’s big races. In 2019 the total purse for the race was £125,000 with £71,187 going to the winner Klassical Dream. He went off at odds of 6/1 beating the 9/2 favourites Fakir D’oudiries and Al Dancer. The win gave both Ruby Walsh and trainer Willie Mullins their sixth wins in the race.

The prize fund didn’t change in 2020 when Shishkin won the race for jockey Nico De Boinville and trainer Nicky Henderson.

Willie Mullins won his Supreme Novices Hurdle in 1995 with Tourist Attraction. For that he earned £35,850, which given it was 25 years ago isn’t a massive difference between 2019’s winning money. The horse was a huge 25/1 winner, winning the race by two lengths.

Ruby Walsh’s first winner in the Supreme Novices Hurdle came in 2006 on Noland. The horse was priced at 6/1 and won the race by a neck. For winning the race they received £57,020.

The winner of the 1968 race was L’Escargot who went on to win the Gold Cup in 1970 and 1971. L’Escargot in the only horse in Supreme Novices’ history to win it and then go on to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup.

More recently there has been Douvan who won the race in 2015 when ridden by Ruby Walsh. At the age of five he won the Supreme Novices Hurdle as the 2/1 favourite. Douvan then went on to win another Cheltenham Festival race in the Arkle Chase. He has since tried his luck at the Queen Mother Champion Chase twice but was a faller in 2018.

The most well known winner though to current racing fans and punters will be Altior. He has won at the Cheltenham Festival in each of his four visits. Altior won this race race in his Cheltenham debut in 2016 with Nico de Boinville on board. He then went on to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy and then twice the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Horses use this race as a stepping stone to go on and establish themselves in subsequent Cheltenham festivals. As a result, horses haven’t returned to the race once winning it.

The leading jockey however in Ruby Walsh. He has six wins in the race spanning over 13 years. His first came on Noland in 2006 and his last was on Klassical Dream in 2019.

The trainer of Klassical Dream, Willie Mullins is also the leading trainer for this race. He, like Walsh, has six wins in the Supreme Novices Hurdle. His first winner was tourist attraction way back in 1995. He had to wait 12 years though for his next one which was Ebaziyan in 2007. He has also won with Champagne Fever (2013), Vautour (2014) and Douvan (2015).