Super Shishkin rules Supreme

Festival opener sees thriller with Abacadabras.

Shishkin edged out Abacadabras in a pulsating renewal of the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

A field of 15 runners went to post for the traditional Cheltenham Festival curtain-raiser, with the Willie Mullins-trained Asterion Forlonge sent off the 9-4 favourite.

The grey made much of the running under Paul Townend, but jumped violently right three flights from home, impeding some of his rivals, while at the following obstacle his stablemate Elixir D’Ainay exited the piece and brought down Captain Guinness.

So impressive in winning his last two starts, Nicky Henderson’s Shishkin had long been towards the top of ante-post lists, but drifted out to 6-1 come the off.

Despite never travelling with much fluency, he began to make inroads on the leaders racing down the hill and tracked the strong-travelling Abacadabras into the home straight.

The pair settled down to fight it out on the run-in and flashed by the post almost as one, before the judged confirmed the Nico de Boinville-ridden Shishkin the winner by a head.

The winner’s stable companion, Chantry House, was third.

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Nicky Henderson Cheltenham Festival Shishkin

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