Day two follows the script with winner of every race at the festival produced by a different stallion

There was little change on the leaderboard among the Cheltenham Festival’s top sires as the meeting’s winners continued to arrive from a wide variety of sources.

By the close of day two, the winner of each of the 13 races had been produced by a different stallion, with some established names from Ireland and France making their mark on Wednesday.

Perhaps the most surprising addition was responsible for the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase hero. Arakan, Sir Michael Stoute’s seven-furlong specialist and a beautifully bred son of Nureyev representing the Niarchos family, is certainly not one of the giants of National Hunt racing.

Captain Guinness has galloped a long way clear of Arakan’s next highest-earning jumper, the useful handicap chaser Vosne Romanee.  

The Cheltenham winner bred by Arthur Fennelly is out of a Presenting half-sister to the capable Jerrysback and is from the family of Celtic Shot, a decorated hurdler and chaser trained by Charlie Brooks in the early 1990s. 

Arakan spent much of his career at Ballyhane Stud in Ireland and produced Group 1 Flat horses including National Stakes winner Toormore and crack miler Dick Turpin. In 2018, at the age of 18, he moved to Haras de Longechaux but he has not had any foals bred in France since 2021.

Tirwanako, who moved the other way from France to Knockhouse Stud in 2020, had easily his biggest winner to date and a landmark Cheltenham moment through Jasmin De Vaux in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper.

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