Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle Tips : Sea of Thunder looks value ahead of Boston Bob at Cheltenham
If stamina isn’t in your make-up then do not apply. This is a race that is run over a gruelling three miles and provides a valuable opportunity for staying novice hurdlers to fine-tune their skills for future crack at the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The race has only been in existence since 2005, so the pool of winners makes it’s hard to judge the strength of the race. However, Weapon’s Amnesty won the race in 2009 before going on to land the RSA Chase the following year.
Despite this year being only the eight running of the race there are some intriguing trends emerging that could pay to follow for this season’s renewal.
As with most staying races at the Festival it looks to keep horses that have previous Cheltenham form on-side as four of the last seven winners having won there before and six of the seven had already had a race at Prestbury Park.
Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle Tips
Sea of Thunder is sure to go close at a big price of 12/1 and looks a good each way bet. Take advantage of a Cheltenham saver bet with an increased free bet of £200/€200 from Bet365 for all visitors of Footybunker.com to spend on any race at Cheltenham! Claim here!
Previous winners Black Jack Ketchum and Nenuphar Collonges both won the Bristol Novices’ Hurdle run at Cheltenham’s December Meeting on their way to Albert Bartlett success. Deireadh Re landed this year’s event and should be heading for this very race, but is a 33-1 chance.
Robert Thornton has twice ridden the winner of this chief staying hurdlers race, first with Moulin Riche, trained by Francois Doumen, in 2005 and then abaord the Alan King-trained Nenuphar Collonges in 2008.
Nicky Henderson grabbed his first win in the race, and amazingly his first of the 2011 Festival, when Bobs Worth rejected any stamina doubts regarding his chances by storming up the Cheltenham hill to see off stablemate Mossley.
It was an emotional victory for jockey Barry Geraghty who pestered Henderson into buying the horse at the sales as he was convinced he was a top-stayer in the making. It was arguably, the first-time a jockey had been both the rider and the bloodstock agent in a Cheltenham Festival win.
Ireland have landed the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle in two (Weapons Amnesty 2009, Berties Dream 2010) of the last three seasons and have the ante-post favourite for this season’s event in the form of Boston Bob.
Willie Mullins’s seven-year-old has yet to be tried over three-miles but has all the hallmarks of a potentially top-class chaser, who should have no problems with tackling maximum distances.
That looked the case on his last start in the Grade Two Synergy Security Solutions Novice Hurdle, where jockey Ruby Walsh always looked to have plenty up his sleeve in the two-and-a-quarter length win over Lyreen Legend. Previously, the son of Bob Back had won two novice hurdles in gutsy style at Navan and justifies his place at the head of the market.
Past Cheltenham form is crucial to finding the winner of the race, especially monitoring the Bristol Novices’ Hurdle run at Cheltenham’s December Meeting. The past results of the Bristol winner in this Festival race now reads an impressive 3141P2 after Mossley bumped into the progressive Bobs Worth last season.
Deireadh Re landed this year’s event but wouldn’t have done if Sea Of Thunder had not fallen at the last when seemingly running out an easy winner. He disappointed next time out behind Boston Bob at Leopardstown but still can’t be ruled out returning to Prestbury Park.
Other fruitful runners to follow could be Rocky Creek and Mount Benbullen. Paul Nicholls’s six year-old ran out an impressive winner of the Registered As The River Don Novices’ Hurdle Race at Doncaster while Mount Benbullen beings some good form behind Boston Bob over from Ireland and could be on to improve as the season wares on.
