Cheltenham Festival 2023: Day Two race card, top tips from the track, TV details and everything you need to know

The Ballymore Novices' Hurdle will start the second day of the Cheltenham Festival. Eight of the last nine winners were Irish trained.

mpaire Et Passe and Gaelic Warrior top the bill for Willie Mullins. The Paul Nicholls-trained Hermes Allen is highly regarded.

In the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase, many eyes, and even more piggy-banks, will be on The Real Whacker, from a small stable in North Yorkshire. He impressed at Cheltenham on New Year's Day. Many winners of this race have gone on to win the Gold Cup. Including Bobs Worth, Denman and Lord Windermere.

Gordon Elliott hit the jackpot in the Coral Cup last year when Commander of Fleet won at 50/1. He's hoping that Off Your Rocco can repeat the long-odds trick. Ireland had five of the last seven winners of the Coral Cup.

Willie Mullins has won the Champion Bumper for the last three years. It's where his name first began to flicker in the Cheltenham lights.

Last March, he entered seven runners in the race. He had three of the first four home. Apart from Mullins, Elliott is the only trainer to have won the race in the last six years. Elliott has a solid chance again with Better Days Ahead. The John Kiely-trained A Dream to Share will stop the traffic in Waterford.

Good value could be found in the Grand Annual Handicap Chase. Twelve of the last sixteen winners went off at 10/1, or bigger.

Tiger Roll enjoyed the spin in the Cross Country Chase. Winning it three times. His owner, Michael O'Leary, declared: "He's been the horse of a lifetime." Elliott will hope that Delta Work can follow in Tiger's hooves.

In the big one, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Energumene, trained by Willie Mullins, defends the title. The experts predict that Edwardstone and Editeur Du Gite will be in the closing credits.

It's another afternoon to put the kettle on. That's the horse that won the Queen Mother two years ago. For the great Henry De Bromhead.

Cheltenham Festival Day 2

(1.30): Ballymore Novices' Hurdle.

(2.10): Brown Advisory Novice's Chase.

(2.50): Coral Cup.

(3.30): Queen Mother Champion Chase.

(4.10): Cross Country Chase.

(4.50): Grand Annual Handicap Chase

(5.30): Champion Bumper.

TOP TIPS

Where can I watch it?

Racing TV will broadcast every race. Virgin Media 1 and ITV 1 will broadcast the first five races each day.

Festival shorts

Dream big..… 

A Dream to Share goes in the Champion Bumper. He's trained by Waterford's John Kiely. John retired as an amateur rider when he was 59. He trained his first winner at Punchestown in 1976. Thirty years ago, he trained Shuil Ar Aghaidh to win the Cheltenham Stayers' Hurdle. Dungarvan's John Gleeson will ride A Dream to Share.

Against the odds.....

In 2016, Sprinter Sacre won the Queen Mother. He had a heart condition and had to be pulled up in previous races. He was written off by most people. But trainer, Nicky Henderson, kept the faith. Nico de Boinville guided him home. To a hero's reception. "It's incredible," reflected Henderson.

Lord of the mike...… 

The legendary BBC commentator, Peter O'Sullevan, was born in Newcastle, County Down. He spent a little while in Kenmare, County Kerry before moving with his family to England.

In 1974, the horse that he owned, Attivo, won the Triumph Hurdle. People said that, listening to his commentary that day, you'd never know that he was the owner. And, they say, that's what made him so good.