Cheltenham Festival 2025 Odds: Can Anything Beat Kopek Des Bordes?
It’s pretty common to find a short-priced favourite to win the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and this year Kopek Des Bordes has led the market to land the 2025 Cheltenham Festival opener for the past few weeks.
Plenty of Cheltenham punters will be looking to get off to a flying start by backing a horse who has claimed successive victories this season. However, the latest odds on horse racing betting sites suggest that the market leader is by no means a certainty to win.
Perhaps the fact that Kopek Des Bordes is trained by Willie Mullins means that his price is shorter than it might be, although there was plenty to like about a 13-length success at Leopardstown at the beginning of February, just ask top trainer Ted Walsh.
“It was a huge performance,” Mullins said after that race. “We would never ask a horse that sort of question at home, but to me, it blew my mind, against a field of top-class horses.
“Ted [Walsh] rang me the following day and he said that he hadn’t seen a performance like that since Golden Cygnet, which is something huge for someone like Ted to say."
That came in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle, with that success coming after a maiden hurdle win at the same course on Boxing Day.
However, some bettors will look for a big-priced alternative on Cheltenham odds, especially if they’re after some each-way value.
Kopek Des Bordes will have 11 rivals to beat in this Festival opener and that includes Workahead, who runs for Henry De Bromhead and has more experience than the favourite.
The seven-year-old was last seen winning at Leopardstown on Boxing Day, when scoring a seven-length triumph in a maiden hurdle.
It’s normally the case that a Supreme winner was successful in his previous outing and that certainly applies to Romeo Coolio.
The six-year-old has the potential to go well for Gordon Elliott, with the latest outing seeing the horse land an impressive win in the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle which was a Grade 1 encounter.
Another each-way contender is William Munny, who was a recent winner at Punchestown.
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This Irish raider, trained by Barry Connell, whose latest success was by an emphatic 15 lengths, with the horse previously performing well when finishing second to favourite Kawaboomga in a maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse.
The rest of the field are trading at bigger odds on betting apps including the Willie Mullins-trained Salvator Mundi and Irancy.
They are very much second-string to Kopek Des Bordes, with the money potentially about to come from punters who will look to chin the bookies in a bid to boost their Cheltenham bankroll for the remaining 27 races.
