Familiar names to the fore in the race for Cheltenham stallion honours

With the Cheltenham Festival being the most high-profile stage in jump racing, leading sire honours are something to write home about. Of course, National Hunt breeding being the long game it is, the winner can often sadly be retired, or deceased, and so making the most of such accolades with a current stallion is especially important.

King's Theatre died in 2011 but his name continues to ring out at the head of the sire rankings at the festival for the past ten years, with a dozen winners to his credit. He has Champ running for him this week in the Stayers’ Hurdle but he won’t be in contention for the 2022 top-sire title.

Stowaway died in 2015 but edged the very-much-alive-and-active Yeats at last year’s festival on countback, the duo having four winners apiece but the late Whytemount Stud stallion having a couple of runners-up too.