CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL DAY 2 TIPS 2026

Ireland took the first six runnings after this race was introduced in 2016 but the home side has hit back with consecutive wins for Harry Fry with Love Envoi, Jamie Snowden with You Wear It Well and Jeremy Scott with Golden Ace last year. The ante-post betting indicates the prize will go back to Ireland this year, with Willie Mullins’ Maughreen and the Gavin Cromwell-trained Sixandahalf disputing favouritism. Both have landed their only starts over hurdles having been bumper winners last season, but in between Sixandahalf had a successful Flat campaign last year (rated 94) that ended with third place in the Irish Cesarewitch. Cromwell’s mare was given a Racing Post Rating of 130 for her hurdles win, compared with 120 for Maughreen (the latter had the edge in bumpers at 121 to 119). Mullins has another good contender in French import Karoline Banbou, who was beaten on her hurdles debut in Ireland by stablemate Baby Kate but won her maiden well next time at Fairyhouse. The leading British hope could be Paul Nicholls’ Jubilee Alpha, who was runner-up in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at Aintree last spring and has plenty of experience over hurdles, having won two out of three to reach an RPR of 125. Nicholls also has Just A Rose, who has the same RPR after her wide-margin debut success at Taunton.

New for this year is this Grade 2 2m4½f novice limited handicap chase, which takes the place of the Grade 1 Golden Miller Novices’ Chase (run most recently under the Turners sponsorship). The aim is to bolster the Grade 1 numbers in the 2m Arkle and 3m Brown Advisory by removing the option for the top novices at the intermediate distance, while adding a competitive handicap in its place. This is an adaptation of the contest held at the festival from 2006 until 2020, after which it was moved to Sandown. A major difference is that the new race is a limited handicap with a 20lb weight range. If this race follows a similar pattern to the previous version, there will be an accent on strong recent form (look for winners/runners-up last time out) and that will tend to mean the winner is more likely to come from the top six in the betting. There might also be a greater spread of winning connections. Fourteen different trainers were successful in the 15 runnings of the previous novice handicap chase and victory went only three times to the trainers who now make up the ‘big five’.

Coming on the same afternoon as the Champion Hurdle, this Grade 1 continues to offer an alternative route to top festival honours for the best mares – arguably to the detriment of the showpiece feature – and the old arguments have resurfaced over where Brighterdaysahead and Lossiemouth should run. The Gordon Elliott-trained Brighterdaysahead rates as the best mare around after her stunning display in the Grade 1 Neville Hotels Hurdle at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting, where she left last year’s Champion winner State Man trailing and came home 30 lengths clear. Lossiemouth won this race last year by three lengths from Telmesomethinggirl, taking Willie Mullins’ score to ten in the 17 runnings. She has raced against the boys this season, most recently taking a heavy fall four out in the Irish Champion Hurdle when going head to head with State Man. If at least one of the big two went to the Champion, the chances would improve for July Flower (Henry de Bromhead) and the Mullins pair Kargese and Jade De Grugy.

Ireland had a recent dual winner of the Stayers’ Hurdle in Flooring Porter and many expect Gordon Elliott’s Teahupoo to follow up last year’s comfortable victory, which came at the expense of Flooring Porter’s hat-trick bid. A stayer in his prime can dominate in this often weak division and arguably that scenario has played out in favour of those two Irish stars in recent years. After Teahupoo was third in his first attempt at the Stayers’ Hurdle in 2023, Elliott kept him fresher last year by giving him just one run beforehand in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle and the same formula has been followed again. Just as important to Teahupoo is soft ground, which is something Elliott cannot control, and quicker conditions than last year could bring him back to the pack. Home By The Lee has been in the pack for the past three years, achieving his best Stayers’ result when third last year, and Joseph O’Brien’s ten-year-old will be back again off a Grade 1 victory at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting. New rivals await too and one on an upward curve is Nicky Henderson’s six-year-old Lucky Place, a Grade 2 course winner on New Year’s Day in the Relkeel Hurdle. Even younger is the Declan Queally-trained Rocky’s Diamond, who was still only four when he was third to Home By The Lee at Christmas and then a month later (after officially turning five) won the Grade 2 Galmoy Hurdle. Elliott also has an up-and-comer of his own in The Wallpark, who would be another interesting new rival for Teahupoo but could go for the Pertemps Final instead.

Some of those prominent in the ante-post betting may be diverted to the Gold Cup or the Champion Chase, but this is still shaping up as a cracking contest. Among the probables are three festival scorers, including the last two winners of this race. Having been beaten twice by stablemate Galopin Des Champs over Leopardstown’s 3m½f, Willie Mullins’ Fact To File may well be best suited by dropping back to this intermediate distance if he is to add to last year’s festival success in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase. He started this season with victory in the John Durkan over a similar mid-range trip, with Galopin Des Champs behind him on that occasion. The old hands are previous winners Protektorat (Dan Skelton) and Envoi Allen (Henry de Bromhead), while the young guns include Venetia Williams’ still-improving dual Grade 2 winner Djelo and narrow John Durkan runner-up Spillane’s Tower for Jimmy Mangan.

As the only staying handicap hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival the Pertemps Final always draws a large field. The race conditions for this 3m handicap hurdle were tightened again in 2023, with horses having to finish in the first four in a Pertemps Series qualifier to be eligible for the final. This year there has been another change, guaranteeing a run for all winners of series qualifiers (provided they are within the weights at declaration stage).

This 3m2f handicap chase is now one of two festival races left open only to amateur riders (the other is the hunter chase) and typically attracts a full field of 24. Last year's winner: Hot favourite Inothewayurthinkin (13-8) made it five wins in six years for Ireland, giving trainer Gavin Cromwell his first handicap success at the festival. Form: There is a trend of Kim Muir winners bouncing back from disappointing efforts (15 of the last 24 winners had been unplaced on their previous run). Inothewayurthinkin had been ninth in Leopardstown’s 2m5½f handicap chase at the Dublin Racing Festival. Weight and ratings: With little between most of the runners nowadays, the higherrated runners have started to do well and 12 of the last 16 winners carried 11st 4lb or more (including topweights Character Building in 2009, Ballabriggs in 2010, Mount Ida in 2021 and Inothewayurthinkin last year). Most recent winners were rated in the 140s (Inothewayurthinkin was 145). Age: Only four horses aged older than nine have won in the last 30 runnings and horses aged seven or eight have won ten of the last 14. Trainers: This tends to get shared around and Cromwell was the 12th different winning trainer in the last 13 runnings. Only Gordon Elliott has doubled up in that time (2021 winner Mount Ida also came from his stable, officially under Denise Foster’s name). Elliott has become the most powerful force with two winners, two seconds, two thirds and three fourths from 21 runners.