Prestbury Park was bouncing after a brilliant first day back with fans at the Cheltenham Festival with day two set to bid farewell to an all-time great.
Festival goers have seven action packed races to look forward to, featuring the prestigious Queen Mother Champion Chase which takes place at 15:30 and sees the likes of 2021’s star Jockey Rachael Blackmore and Nico de Boinville – who will be looking to add to his Cheltenham collection this year.
Alongside that, the day also includes the Cross Country Chase which features a very popular figure in the form of Tiger Roll who will look to win the race for the third time running.
The day starts off with the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle which sees Paul Townend, Blackmore and de Boinville all compete, with Townend riding the favourite Sir Gerhard at 4/6.
It then continues onto the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase which is the first of two three-mile races of the day, featuring 19 fences to be jumped. Bravemansgame is the favourite at 5/2 who is trained by Lydney born Paul Nicholls.
Next up sees the busy race of the day, with 26 horses battling out for the Coral Cup. Blackmore is among the competitors as she races with Champagne Gold, however Camprond tops the bookies odds at 27/4.
After that is the featured race of the day as eight horses go head-to-head for the Queen Mother Champion Chase with Shishkin the clear favourite at 10/11 who will be ridden by de Boinville. He faces Energumene, who he faced in one of the races of the season at Ascot back in January, with Townend hoping to avenge Energumene.
Fan-favourite Tiger Roll features in the Cross Country Chase at 16:10 as Davy Russell who has ridden him to his two Grand National wins, jockeys him for the final time, looking to go out in a blaze of glory at Cheltenham, where the favourite is already a five-time festival winner.
The 16:50 Grand Annual Chase race is another one of the highly competed competitions with 20 horses looking to win. Andy Dufresne leads the betting odds at a high 13/2 and will be ridden by Paul Walsh who will be looking to add to his win with Brazil in yesterday’s Handicap Hurdle.
The day then ends with the Champion Bumper at 17:30 and Willie Mullins’ Facile Vega is the favourite at 6/4, however it’s not the only Mullins horse competing, as Houlanbatordechais also races with Blackmore jockeying, which will conclude another exciting day in Cheltenham.