Buveur D’Air can throw a spanner in the works in opener

Nicky Henderson can upset Willie Mullins’ bid for a fourth consecutive victory in the Supreme Novices Hurdle, by taking the Festival opener with Buveur D’Air.

After winning won two bumpers in France, he made a very promising start for his new stable by running Barters Hill to three parts of a length in a listed bumper at Newbury. He was below that form when further behind the same horse in Aintree, but has returned this season in even better form.

The form of his latest outing, in a novice hurdle, is nothing to get too excited about, but his maiden hurdle success has worked out particularly well. He wasn’t off the bridle in either of those runs, travels like a dream, and looks the ideal type to make the step up to this grade. The exciting sort is generous in a finish, and is taken to prove too smart for Mullins’ Min and Dermot Weld’s Silver Concorde.