We’re off to the races all this week, looking today at the Cheltenham Festival day 2. 28 races make up the most hotly-contested event in the racing calendar with almost 500 horses competing for £1m in prize money every day. This year’s festival runs 13-16 March and we’ll keep you up to date on air and online with the previews and results.
See the results from Day 1 here. Get Day 2 results here.
Cheltenham Festival Day 2
Here’s how the agenda looks for day two of this year’s Cheltenham Festival, with seven more races on the card. The highlight of today is the Queen Mother Champion Chase at 3.30pm.
- 1.30pm: Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle (Baring Bingham) (Grade 1)
- 2.10pm: Rsa Insurance Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)
- 2.50pm: Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3)
- 3.30pm: Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase (Grade 1)
- 4.10pm: Glenfarclas Chase (Cross Country)
- 4.50pm: Boodles Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3)
- 5.30pm: Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Standard Open National Hunt Flat) (Grade 1)
Hot favourite Altior squares up to two of Ireland’s top chasers, Douvan and Min in a hugely anticipated Queen Mother Champion Chase, which is the feature of Day 2 of the Cheltenham Festival.
Altior’s shaken off a last minute scare having come up lame earlier in the week and jockey Nico de Boinville has his fingers crossed for a good performance.
Nicky Henderson’s stable star has to overcome a two pronged attack from the Willie Mullins squad, both owned by Rich Ricci, and with Ruby Walsh having chosen to ride Douvan. The opposition also includes Charbel, who fell 2 out in last year’s Arkle Chase when narrowly ahead of Altior.
Rising Stars On Day 2?
Jockey Bryony Frost has a huge chance of landing her first Cheltenham Grade One race when she takes the ride on Black Corton, trained by her boss Paul Nicholls in the RSA Novice Chase.
The rising star of the jockeys room rode her to a famous victory at Kempton on Boxing Day to become only the second British Lady Rider to ride a jumps Grade One winner.
Black Corton’s owners include TV presenter Jeremy Kyle and Andy Stewart, whose family owned one of the Cheltenham all time greats Big Bucks’.
Stewart believes Frost has a major chance of making history.
Can Samcro Do The Business?
The most exciting novice to race in Ireland for some years, Samcro, has his date with destiny in the first race on day 2, the Ballymore Novices Hurdle.
He warmed up for this by demolishing a strong field in the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown last month and is seen by the thousands of pilgrims at Cheltenham as one of the bankers of their week.
Whatever happens today at Cheltenham, we’ll have all the updates and results on air from 1.30pm. Get Day 2 results here.
