Nicky Henderson fields his electric novice Angels Breath on Thursday in the Listed Sidney Banks Memorial Novices Hurdle at Huntingdon where he takes on five other rivals in his search to extend his favouritism at the top of the betting for the Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The unbeaten five year old has only had two starts to date. The first came in an Irish point where she went on to take the spoils and be clear of field of 13, from this she was given to leading British trainer Nicky Henderson.
Under the seven barrows trainer she has only had one start and that was just before Christmas when she went on to score on her British Debut and Grade 2 debut at Ascot.
This competitive Supreme Trial Novices Hurdle saw a lot of the runners that could end up going to festival but Angels Breath went on to dominate the proceedings and saw her name head to the top of the market for the first Grade 1 at the festival.
He is currently the 5/1 stand alone favourite and this comes after just two races in his entire career which is remarkable but on Thursday he will be heading into Listed Company against another good challenger where this time he is giving five pounds away to the rest of the field.
Some tool is ANGELS BREATH
— Off To The Races (@OTTR_Elliot) December 21, 2018
Not best suited by less hurdles and still powered away from former bumper horse Danny Kirwan. pic.twitter.com/F097O1tBmT
(Credit Racing TV)
The 5/1 favourite for the Supreme Novices Hurdle will have to take on another unbeaten horse if he is to keep his standing record and that is Warren Greatrex trained Emitom.
This five year old who is set to be ridden by Gavin Sheehan will be having her fifth career start after cleaning up in her four previous outings.
They have all come at Class 4 level with two in bumpers and the others over hurdles, but he looks ready for this step up in class but will be having his stiffest task to date.
The rest of the field is made up of Hold The Note, I K Brunel and Strong Glance as they take their chances in this Listed contest, which was won by Vinndication last year.
Huntingdon racecourse don't get to many big names to the course compared to others but races like this help to build the name and reputation of the track and their officials are looking forward to a good crowd coming down to watch the feature race and other six race on the card.
(Credit Racing Post) Jack Pryor, clerk of the course, said: "We are absolutely delighted with the field. We have benefited from Musselburgh not being on so Angels Breath comes here instead and seeing him will be very exciting, but Emitom and Anytime Will Do are fairly useful yardsticks as well.
"Normally we would be pleased to have any of them so to have three is fantastic. The crowd sales look good and we should have a really nice day especially if the rain stays away.
"He added on Thursday's ground: "The going is currently good to soft, soft in places, but with the forecast overnight rain I would anticipate it easing to soft all round. We will have to wait and see what arrives in the morning