Paddy Power ambassador Ruby Walsh believes Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Appreciate It should be aimed for next year’s Arkle Chase.
Willie Mullins’ seven-year-old justified his billing as odds-on market favourite for the opening race of the 2021 Cheltenham Festival by crushing the rest of the field by 24l.
Altior and Shishkin followed up success in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle with the Arkle Chase in recent years – and Paddy Power have installed Appreciate It as the 3/1 antepost favourite for next year’s renewal.
Speaking on the latest episode of From The Horse’s Mouth, Ruby said: “If I was riding for Willie he’d be heading for the Arkle.”
Our resident jockey-turned-pundit tipped Appreciate It for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and was suitably impressed by the manner of the victory, but he wasn’t particularly impressed with the other runners.
“Metier didn’t perform, Soaring Glory ran a bit like other Betfair Hurdle winners in the Supreme, and Blue Lord was going to be a good second when he tipped up at the last,” Ruby said.
“It was a really good performance from Appreciate It – jumped well, the strong gallop suited him and he absolutely bolted in.”
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Paddy Power trader Frank Hickey believes the key takeaway from the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle is that the “English novices are very weak”.
Frank added: “Soaring Glory and Metier were absolutely destroyed, For Pleasure ran credible enough but he still got beat by a long way. Appreciate It was very impressive but he was a comfortable winner.
“For the future, the winner and the second are usually good horses and I wouldn’t be thinking the rest would be winning Grade 1s.”
*Odds quoted on the widget are Future Racing / Antepost prices which means that if your selection does not run in the race for whatever reason – you will lose your stake under traditional Antepost rules
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