Neptune Investment Hurdle

The Neptune Investment Hurdle is the second race of Ladies Day at the Cheltenham Festival. It is a Grade 1 for novice hurdlers over the age of four. Run over a distance of approximately 2 miles and 5 furlongs, the runners have a total of 10 hurdles to be jumped. Run over a medium distance it is an ideal race for the top novices who find the Supreme slightly on the short side, but aren’t quite sure they have the ideal stamina levels for the 3 mile Albert Bartlett.

Making An Investment On The Neptune Winner

The market for the Neptune Investment Hurdle has seen Fingal Bay sit comfortably at the top of the pile, following a very impressive Grade 2 victory in the Winter Novices Hurdle at Sandown, early in December. That was the third Grade 2 win for Philip Hobbs’ gelding, who went one better when taking the Grade 1 Bathwick Tyres Challow Novices Hurdle. His victory in the Challow at Newbury failed to impress, however, and fans of statistics will readily point out the Challow has a terrible record in producing winners of the Neptune. That was Fingal Bay’s fourth run of the season though, and it would be foolish to forget about the other impressive performances he has put up.

With the poor record of the Challow winners in the Neptune, we also have the fact that only one favourite in the last ten runnings has managed to win. (Mikael D’haguenet who won 5/2F in 2009). Six of the last ten winners have fallen in between the 6/1 to 9/1 bracket so it is worth keeping the focus at the top end of the market. Bar the Nicky Henderson trained Simonsig, whose plans remain somewhat unknown, the Irish have a strong hand with the next four market principals. Irish based runners have taken three of the last four Neptune Investment Hurdle’s and they have a cracking chance of continuing the success in 2012.

The current second favourite in the market is Make Your Mark who has looked a horse of huge potential with two wide-margin wins from two starts. The horse is owned by the Gigginstown operation who won this race last year with First Lieutenant. Next in the market is Boston Bob who secured Grade One victory at Navan in December. He may require a longer trip though and could go for the Albert Barlett Novices Hurdle instead. Next in the market is the Noel Meade trained Monksland. He scored emphatically in the Grade 2 Slaney Novice Hurdle, traveling strongly and picking up in the manner of a classy type. With the conditions likely to be better at Cheltenham he is a live contender at a bigger price. There are several other types that can be considered outsiders, however they would need to put in an impressive performance before Cheltenham to move up the pecking order.

Reflecting On A High Class 2011 Neptune

Looking back at the 2011 Neptune Investment Hurdle shows that it was a strong affair, featuring several high quality horses. The race itself was an absolute thriller as First Lieutenant found a late burst to steal the race from Rock On Ruby. It was Oscars Well who looked like winning when tanking along, however a blunder at the last ruined his chances as he ended up back in fourth. In third that day was So Young. All of the top four have proved to be more than useful, with Rock On Ruby perhaps showing the best form so far this season with some top class performances. Rock On Ruby and Oscars Well both look likely to contest this year’s Champion Hurdle and they look lively outsiders. First Lieutenant looks likely to participate in the RSA Chase but finds himself an outsider having not looked hugely fluent so far in his novice chasing season. So Young may not feature at Cheltenham due to Willie Mullins having a string of top class horses at his disposal.